On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki presented “the most radical plan in Europe” of moving away from Russian hydrocarbons. The head of the government announced Poland was completely cutting Russian oil, gas and coal as early as this year.
“We will enforce a total embargo on Russian coal in April or May at the latest. We are calling upon everyone — Germany and other Western European countries that are still importing those resources from Russia — to do the same,” declared Morawiecki. He stressed that thanks to Polish oil giant PKN Orlen “we have reached the point where we are mostly independent, and we are showing a plan of moving away from Russian oil by the end of this year.”
“I call upon the European Commission to introduce a tax on Russian hydrocarbons, so that fair trade, and fair economic rules would be implemented in a unified European market,” said Morawiecki.
Referring to the import of Russian gas, the prime minister reminded that at the beginning of the first term of office of the United Right government, a decision to build an LNG terminal in Świnoujście was made, and later in 2016 to also build the Baltic Pipe that would bring supplies from Norway to Poland under the Baltic Sea.
“When others in Europe thought of Russia as a business partner, we knew that it used their gas mostly as a blackmail tool. That is why, for years, we have been arguing for taking this tool away from Putin and Russia,” said Morawiecki.
“Putin’s blackmail tool has now transformed into a weapon of war. That is why we are calling upon everyone in Europe to follow in our footsteps,” added Morawiecki.
He announced a plan of “derussification of hydrocarbons” in the Polish economy, and expressed his faith in the Polish political class “will support this action even if there is no approval from the EU.”
The Polish prime minister said that a new proverb should be coined from the existing “A Pole is wise only after a harm,” into “A German is wise only after a harm.”
“Today, the vice chancellor of Germany says that this dependency on Russian imports is wrong and stupid. We must soberly look at the future,” emphasized Morawiecki.
