You are here
Home > News > Construction of Belarus border wall independent of EU funds: PM

Construction of Belarus border wall independent of EU funds: PM

Were the EU to decide to finance the wall on the Polish-Belarusian border, the funds would be gladly accepted, however, we are not dependent on EU funding for the project, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday.

He told a press conference on Thursday that Poland had already secured adequate funds for the construction of the barrier.

“We did it because we are under attack by the Lukashenko regime. We want to prevent this wave of migration from the Middle East, from Arab countries to Poland, to protect it and its security, so we decided to do it and we did not ask anyone for help,” he said.

PM Morawiecki, commenting the appeal of 12 member states to finance the physical installation at the border with EU money, said that “If there is such a decision, then, of course, we will adopt these measures, because we believe that we are not only protecting Polish citizens, but also protecting EU citizens, because our eastern border is the eastern border of the EU.”

Deputy interior minister Maciej Wąsik told the Senate (upper house) on Wednesday that Poland applied to the EU Integrated Border Management Fund for a sum of over EUR 200 mln to gain co-financing of the barrier and for special equipment for border guards.

The government wants to build a wall on the border with Belarus due to migratory pressure. The estimated cost of constructing border barriers is EUR 350 mln.

Due to the Minsk-fueled migration crisis, a state of emergency has been in place since September 2 in 183 localities of the Podlasie and Lubelskie provinces.

The EU and its member states have accused the Belarusian government of deliberately pushing the migrants into Poland in a move to destabilise the EU. Since the beginning of the year, the Polish Border Guard has so far recorded over 20,000 attempts to illegally cross the Polish-Belarusian border.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Top