Petr Fiala had a joint press conference with his Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki. He said that Prague was “fully aware of the fact that in recent years Czechia has not made sufficient effort to ensure energy security.”
The ??-??intergovernmental consultations has come to an end. pic.twitter.com/LFRJ2xG8Sh
— Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (@PremierRP_en) June 3, 2022
“We have become dependent on Russian resources and we want to end that dependency as quickly as possible,” Fiala said. “We hope the Republic of Poland will come to our aid here, that’s why we will further discuss and negotiate matters related to energy infrastructure, this concerns mostly a return to the Stork II project and building gas pipeline infrastructure.”
The Stork II project concerns a Polish-Czech gas interconnector together with extended gas infrastructure in both countries as part of the North-South Corridor in Central and South-eastern Europe, a plan supported financially by the EU through its Connecting Europe Facility.
Fiala said this project had been “dormant” recently and that a return to it would enable the Czech Republic to strengthen its situation.
His talks with Morawiecki were part of broader Polish-Czech inter-governmental consultations, held in Prague on Friday, which culminated in the signing of defence and infrastructure agreements between the two countries’ ministries.
???? PM @MorawieckiM: Thank you very much @P_Fiala for the common purpose, joint policy, honesty and sincerity in our relations. (…) I am glad that in the future we will be able to pursue significant goals together for the good of the Czech Republic and Poland.
— Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (@PremierRP_en) June 3, 2022
???? PM @MorawieckiM: As the government of Poland, we would like to thank you @P_Fiala for the invitation to #Prague. It was a very good and important meeting, fruitful in agreements and memoranda. We also shared our reflections on what is happening beyond our eastern border. pic.twitter.com/O9MiySJAcP
— Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (@PremierRP_en) June 3, 2022