Macron meets Poland's Morawiecki in Paris to tackle Ukraine crisis

Record ID: 1686656

  • Title: Macron meets Poland's Morawiecki in Paris to tackle Ukraine crisis
  • Date: 29th August 2022
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (AUGUST 29, 2022) (AGENCY POOL) CAR TRANSPORTING POLISH PRIME MINISTER, MATEUSZ MORAWIECKI, ARRIVING AT ELYSEE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE COURTYARD / MORAWIECKI EXITING CAR, WALKING, BEING GREETED BY FRENCH PRESIDENT, EMMANUEL MACRON REPUBLICAN GUARD MACRON AND MORAWIECKI AT THE PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH PRESIDENT, EMMANUEL MACRON, SAYING: "We will also speak about our vision for Europe in the coming years, the enlargement and the recognition of the candidate status for adhesion for Ukraine and Moldova, France's proposition for a European political community, and we will have a first meeting in Prague in the coming weeks. I will continue to defend this idea, which to me is important, of having political and geopolitical convergence even beyond the European Union, with those who plan to become candidates." FRENCH AND EUROPEAN FLAGS (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH PRESIDENT, EMMANUEL MACRON, SAYING: "In the short term, the situation around the Zaporizhzhia plant is of course what worries us the most. We have done everything these past few days to help organise the IAEA mission. I spoke on the phone yesterday with (IAEA Director General Rafael) Grossi before he left early this morning to Ukraine. We have a common worry: first of all, nuclear safety and security should not be made fragile by this war. And so this mission is important, it should preserve this plant and the safety and security of the entire region." REPUBLICAN GUARDS (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH PRESIDENT, EMMANUEL MACRON, SAYING: "Poland and France have been fighting for several months to reinforce this energy sovereignty and to deeply reform the electricity market. I wish for us to fulfill this dynamic and to have a really have an electricity protected from elements of speculation and renovated in terms of identifying prices since our countries today are victims of price formulas and basic market hypotheses that do no longer correspond to the reality. I wish for us to move forward very quickly, we have already called for this several months ago, and the coming weeks will be critical on this." MORAWIECKI SPEAKING BESIDE MACRON (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) POLISH PRIME MINISTER, MATEUSZ MORAWIECKI, SAYING: “What we are dealing with today is not even the end of the war in Ukraine. Unfortunately, it is not even the beginning of an end. Maybe we just deal with the end of the beginning of the crisis, which is still developing on many levels, and that’s why our response needs to be patient, balanced, but also, of course, firm. We better not find out that the Ukrainians have more strength under Russian bombs that are falling on them, more strength, patience, and resistance than us, Europeans who are sometimes hesitant to lower down our thermostat by two degrees.” REPUBLICAN GUARDS (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) POLISH PRIME MINISTER, MATEUSZ MORAWIECKI, SAYING: “Europe is now in a sort of geopolitical nap, and in the meantime, someone else is furnishing the world not necessarily the way we want it. That is why we either quickly wake up or the time will slip through our fingers and Europe will lose its significance in the geopolitical arrangement. Here in France, you don’t need to explain to anyone what it means to be one for all, all for one - the old Musketeers’ motto. This is the motto we should stick to, even if we differ in some matters.” REPUBLICAN GUARDS MORAWIECKI AND MACRON SHAKING HANDS AFTER STATEMENTS, WALKING UP ELYSEE STEPS, POSING FOR PICTURES, ENTERING ELYSEE ELYSEE FACADE
  • Embargoed: 12th September 2022 11:29
  • Keywords: Elysee France Macron Morawiecki Poland
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Europe,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001121129082022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Paris on Monday (August 29) to discuss developments in the Ukraine crisis.
    Speaking alongside Morawiecki at the Elysee presidential palace, Macron said there will be a first meeting in Prague in the coming weeks to discuss creating a new European political community to address political and security-related challenges facing the continent, as well as Ukraine's and Moldova's candidate status in the bloc.
    The main worry for now, Macron said, lies on ensuring the security of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
    Captured by Russian troops in March but run by Ukrainian staff, Zaporizhzhia has been a hotspot in a conflict that has settled into a war of attrition fought mainly in Ukraine's east and south six months after Russia launched its invasion.
    A team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog headed on Monday to the Zaporizhzhia plant, the agency's chief said, as Russia and Ukraine traded accusations of shelling in its vicinity, fuelling fears of a radiation disaster.
    Morawiecki, who will address French bosses group Medef later on Monday, called for European solidarity in the face of the Ukraine situation.
    “Europe is now in a sort of geopolitical nap, and in the meantime, someone else is furnishing the world not necessarily the way we want it. That is why we either quickly wake up or the time will slip through our fingers," he said.
    (Production: Ardee Napolitano, Malgorzata Wojtunik)
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