French president to visit Poland this year: official

Nathalie Loiseau, France’s minister for European affairs, was speaking after meeting Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymański in Warsaw on Monday.

The two took part in a debate on the future of the European Union at an institute of postgraduate European studies in the Polish capital.

Loiseau was quoted as saying at the Warsaw campus of the College of Europe that “Polish-French relations currently do not meet the expectations of either nation" given “our common history and the friendship we have for each other."

She told reporters that Macron’s visit would focus on both historical ties and new challenges facing the European Union, such as “Brexit and security issues."

She also said that another challenge was "anti-European populism, which is forgetting that European integration has ensured us decades of peace and prosperity,” Poland’s PAP news agency reported.

She noted at a press conference that 2019 marked 100 years since Poland and France established diplomatic relations.

Meanwhile, Poland’s Szymański, the deputy foreign minister in charge of European affairs, said that Warsaw and Paris were keen to talk about the future of the European Union because they both “cared about the EU.”

He added that a key issue for all political forces in Europe was to give citizens across the bloc “a sense of control over the European project.”

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP