“Dear Donald, Poland is the largest defence spender in Europe – and you will be the biggest beneficiary from SAFE,” assured the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, today. Together with Donald Tusk, she is visiting the border with Belarus.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Krynki (Podlaskie region) on the Polish-Belarusian border. The main topic of their talks is defense and security, including the protection of the EU’s eastern border.
At the Border Guard post in Krynki, Prime Minister Tusk and the EC President took part in a briefing with the command staff of the Border Guard and the army, services involved in protecting the Polish-Belarusian border, where, for several years, hybrid actions and migration pressure, inspired by Belarus and Russia, have been taking place.
After 11 a.m., the politicians appeared at the border for a joint press briefing.
“Today is an important day. Forty-five years ago, in my hometown of Gdańsk, Solidarity was born after a great strike. To this day, this remains my most important personal life experience, the shipyard strike and the later creation of Solidarity,”
began the Prime Minister.
“I chose this place to show what contemporary solidarity means today. This border is just as important now as our dream of freeing ourselves from Soviet domination was back then,”
he pointed out.
“We are here, at this barrier that protects Poland and Europe from the hybrid war declared by Belarus and Russia, from illegal migration,” he emphasized in the presence of von der Leyen.
Tusk stressed that “just like 45 years ago, today Poland and Poles are fully and consciously taking upon themselves the great task of safeguarding the security and independence of the entire Western world.”
“This place teaches all of us what solidarity is, what betrayal is, what security means, how priceless freedom and independence are, and how important it is that today, as the whole West, we draw lessons from these Polish experiences,”
he appealed.
He assured that Poland “takes its obligations seriously and expects all European institutions and states to take an equally serious approach to the issue of the eastern border’s security and a firm stance toward the aggressor.”
From the EC President came a clear declaration of additional support for countries bordering Russia and Belarus.
“We are proposing a new 7-year EU budget in which spending on migration and border management will be tripled. Member states with a direct border with Russia and Belarus will receive additional funds,”
she said in the presence of the media.
She added that a tenfold increase in funding for military mobility had also been proposed, along with more than a fivefold increase in defense investments. “These borders are our shared responsibility,” she explained.
Von der Leyen marked her presence in Poland on social media, assuring the country’s priority position.
“Dear Donald, Poland is the largest defence spender in Europe – and you will be the biggest beneficiary from SAFE. To match Poland’s readiness, we have proposed a fivefold increase in defence investments. And a ten-fold increase in funding for military mobility. Together we can achieve a Europe that protects,”
read von der Leyen’s post.
In Podlaskie, a 5.5-meter-high steel fence runs for 186 km along the border with Belarus, complemented by an electronic barrier operating along 206 km of the border, including river sections. Meanwhile, in Lubelskie, an electronic barrier has been built along the Bug River, which forms the border; it is 171 km long.
According to a statement from the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, in addition to defense and security at the EU’s eastern border, the talks in Krynki also cover, among other things, the SAFE preferential loan program, which is part of Europe’s rearmament plan in response to Russia’s growing military potential.
The EC President’s visit to Poland is part of a series of her meetings, begun on Friday, in EU countries bordering Russia and Belarus. In total, Ursula von der Leyen will visit seven countries: Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania.