Follows Hungary

Poland takes over the EU Council Presidency

At the turn of the year, Poland took over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council from Hungary.

Representatives of the country's government will thus take over the chairmanship of numerous ministerial meetings until the end of June and mediate in the event of differences of opinion between the EU states. The main aim is to ensure that EU legislative procedures run as smoothly as possible.

Donald Tusk knows the machinery of the EU
The hope in Brussels is that the Polish government will not instrumentalize its prominent role for its own purposes as the Hungarian government has done in the past six months. Last summer, for example, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban traveled to Moscow and Beijing without prior consultation shortly after his country took over the presidency of the Council, causing a great deal of resentment. Poland is not expected to go it alone diplomatically in this way - also because Prime Minister Donald Tusk knows the EU machinery better than many others.

Motto: "It's about security, Europe!"
In the six months of its presidency, Poland wants to focus primarily on security and defense policy. "It's about security, Europe!" is the motto that the government in Warsaw has issued. 

As far as external security is concerned, the Polish presidency has primarily set out to strengthen the European defense industry. The EU and NATO country also wants to advocate "maximum support" from the EU for Ukraine, which is under attack from Russia. In terms of internal security, Poland is focusing primarily on migration and the fight against sabotage.