“We are grateful for what we get from the European Union, but we want to underline that we are giving back at least as much through opening our markets, our talents, and even hard money in the form of dividends we pay,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said during a press conference after their meeting.
“We represent almost half of the countries in the EU and we are the locomotive of economic growth in Europe,” Morawiecki added, saying that currently countries from the former socialist bloc recorded higher economic growth rates than some of their western European counterparts.
The leaders present in Warsaw on Wednesday — including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila — all signed the Warsaw Declaration on the Reunification of Europe-Our Union, Our Future.
According to Morawiecki, the Warsaw Declaration shows that the newest member states of the EU are ready to speak with one voice, and thus in the future could be more efficient in defending their interests in front of western European countries.
A first opportunity to manifest this unity will be an informal summit on the future of the European Union to take place May 9 in Sibiu, Romania, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
“The governments of all member states must take part in the EU decision-making process on the same principle and in the spirit of loyal cooperation and unity,” writes the Declaration, according to the Polish Prime Minister’s Office.
