Europe must take responsibility for its own security, says Polish minister
Share:
‘Very difficult time’ anticipated as Poland takes over EU presidency against backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty. Europe must “take responsibility” for its own security, Poland has told its fellow EU member states, as Warsaw takes over the rotating presidency of the bloc at a time of increasing geopolitical uncertainty.
Poland has started its six-month presidency as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House having promised to bring a negotiated end to Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine and threatened to seize Greenland using military force. “There is awareness among European countries that the next few months will be a very difficult time … That’s why we think that this particular moment is the right time to say loudly that it’s time to take responsibility for our future and our security,” said Poland’s Europe minister, Adam Szłapka, in an interview with the Guardian at the foreign ministry building in Warsaw.
“Security is something that we need to think about every day,” he said, adding that Poland defined European security in broad terms. “It’s not only about strengthening our defence industry capabilities. It’s also about internal security … about energy security and economic security.”.
Poland has taken on the bloc’s rotating presidency before, but the country and the continent are experiencing a very different moment to that in 2011 when Warsaw was first in charge. Then, Poland had been an EU member for less than a decade; now, the country is one of the key European players in the response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
