By Adrianna Ebert and Anna Banacka
GDANSK, Poland (Reuters) – The European Union must act to lower energy prices and curb illegal migration, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday, as he laid out Warsaw’s priorities for its six-month presidency of the bloc during a visit by EU commissioners.
Worries about the cost of living and migration have fuelled a rise in right-wing, eurosceptic parties in many parts of the European Union. Tusk has previously said pro-European parties must act decisively on these issues, which will likely feature prominently in this year’s Polish presidential election.
“I have asked the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration and the Minister of Justice to present such a quick plan for immediate reaction to organised and aggressive crime committed by foreigners,” he told a joint news conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“Anyone who visits Poland, takes advantage of our hospitality and brutally violates the law will be deported from Poland.”
He reiterated that Poland, which took in over a million Ukrainian refugees after Russia’s 2022 invasion, would not accept additional migrants under the EU’s migration pact.
Von der Leyen said the EU would present a proposal to increase financial support for security on Poland’s border with Belarus.
Protesters who oppose the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ to combat climate change gathered outside the venue for the meeting of the commissioners and Polish government ministers in the Baltic port city of Gdansk.
“The Green Deal directly affects us Poles,” one protester told Reuters, adding that he blamed it for rising energy prices.
Tusk said the EU must ensure that energy prices come down, saying the bloc would look for investment and regulatory solutions.
“No decision can be made in Europe that could cause another increase in energy prices,” he told the news conference. “We must make decisions that will result in lower energy prices.”
(Reporting by Adrianna Ebert, Anna Banacka, Pawel Florkiewicz, Alan Charlish; Additional reporting by Benoit van Overstraeten in Paris; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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