Morawiecki: Czechia and Poland to propose EU funding programme for countries taking in Ukrainian refugees

Poland and the Czech Republic will issue a joint proposal to the European Commission asking it to provide special financial help to manage the Ukrainian refugee crisis, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday after a meeting with his Czech counterpart Petr Fiala in Warsaw.

The Czech Republic has taken in 300,000 refugees since Russia invaded Ukraine, Poland 3 million.

Mr Morawiecky said that Ukrainians are fighting for Europe’s sovereignty and freedom.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that both Czechia and Poland have thus far managed to handle the refugee crisis. However, he warned that this will not be possible in the long-term without solidarity from other EU member states. He ruled out calling for quotas to redistribute refugees across all member states, as some EU members wanted during the 2015 Migration Crisis, and highlighted that Ukrainian refugees are not leaving their country to improve their economic wellbeing but to save their lives.