European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the Polish-Belarusian border together with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and Ukraine were top of their thoughts.
Von der Leyen thanked Poland for defending Europe from what she called cynical hybrid attacks by “predator” Putin.
Tusk, in a dig at Trump’s peace efforts, said it was time to end the idea that “concessions or subtle games” could achieve any breakthrough with Putin. He called on “Poland, Europe, NATO and the United States to once again be very tough, decisive and united against this latest version of the evil empire”.
The EC President’s visit on August 31 was a part of a tour of frontline eastern European Union states starting on August 29 with a visit to Latvia and Finland and will take in stops in Bulgaria and Romania.
According to an EC statement, her visits are intended to “underscore the EU’s support for member states facing the challenges of sharing borders with Russia or Belarus”.
The EU has already announced a plan to invest €800 billion defence infrastructure by 2030 , alongside the €150 billion Security Action for Europe (SAFE) scheme to help individual member states purchase weapons and equipment.
Poland has been assured by von der Leyen that it is to play a key role as the one of the largest beneficiaries of SAFE. The fund is financed by EU borrowing with the EC President adding that the the body would will “prepare a roadmap on how to invest the additional defence money in the European Union” in the next few weeks.
Her press conference with Tusk took place in front of the fence Poland has built along its border with Belarus.
Since 2021, Poland has been experiencing waves of illegal migrants facilitated by Belarus, which has encouraged and assisted tens of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia illegally to enter the EU.
Poland has termed these actions, together with other acts by Belarus, “hybrid war” and has blamed both Belarus and Russia for the situation on that border.
Von der Leyen voiced her and the EU’s support for Poland’s resistance to incursions of its borders and targeted Putin over the crisis.
“We have to keep this sense of urgency because we know that Putin has not changed and will not change. He is a predator and he can only be kept in check through strong deterrence,” she said.
Tusk noted that their meeting was taking place on the 45th anniversary of the formation of the Solidarity trades union, which began the process of the demise of Communism that was completed nine years later.
He said: “Solidarity’s mission was to unite Europe and separate it from the evil empire,” adding that the border with Belarus was “just as important today as our dream of liberation from Soviet domination was then.”
Tusk then turned to Ukraine, saying “no concessions, no subtle game with Vladimir Putin and aggressive Russia will lead to success or guarantee our security”.
He added: “Europe and the US must once again unite against the evil empire”.
In the past Tusk himself had endorsed the reset of relations initiated by then-US president Barack Obama after the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008.
The Polish PM, who leads the present centre-left coalition government, when in opposition in 2021 was critical of the then-Conservative (PiS) government’s construction of a border fence. He also called for humanitarian treatment of the migrants attempting to force their way into Poland.
Tusk’s administration has decided to issue an “instruction” to the PiS-allied President Karol Nawrocki ahead of his meeting with Trump in the White House on September 3. It is to signal that Poland will not be buying any more weapons from the US, nor giving the US the contract for a second atomic power station. In addition, the government said it will follow the EU rather than the US on introducing a digital tax and social media controls.
The details of the guidelines, which were leaked out Polish media on August 28, also instruct the head of state to defend the EU during the visit to the US and to emphasise that Poland is part of the “coalition of the willing” on helping Ukraine.
Robert Mazurek, a journalist with internet channel Kanał Zero who first revealed the text of the government’s instruction, referred to the document as “throwing the President under a bus in the White House” via “clumsy diplomacy”.
The Polish Government insisted it has the sole power of foreign policy making and that the President must follow its guidelines when on foreign visits and all other contacts with foreign statesmen. The Constitution , though, merely states the two branches of the executive should liaise over foreign policy.
Nonetheless, the Tusk government played no role in securing Nawrocki the visit in the White House as its relations with the Trump administration are poor after Tusk in 2023 called Trump a “Russian asset”.
In addition, the Polish PM has had social media spats with Trump’s Republicans over aid for Ukraine, For that he has been publicly slammed by both US State Secretary Marco Rubio and Vice-President JD Vance.
While Nawrocki and the Tusk administration are both opposed to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine they have, as the presidential election proved, divergent views on the importance of the US for Polish security.
Differences are also evident regarding Ukraine’s place in the EU and NATO, with Tusk seeing the bloc as the guarantor of Polish security and Nawrocki believing that role should be played by the US.
