The Polish EU Council Presidency aims at making Europe more secure in seven policy area

The Polish government chose security as the guiding light for the actions it will implement for its six-month period at the lead of the EU Council legislative agenda. The motto “Security, Europe” comes at a time when the EU is facing several challenges at the international level linked to the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and Donald Trump’s Republican-backed US administration’s new rise to power.
The focus on security will be applied to seven different groups of policy fields.

A more vigorously financed EU defense

In the external dimension of security, Poland will push to boost Europe’s defense readiness by raising defense spending and strengthening cooperation with NATO and like-minded countries. Engagement with the US is considered necessary to increase the resilience of the transatlantic relationship.

The Polish Presidency will push for an in-depth discussion on the financing aspect. The commitment in this field is to continue the debate on defense and security financing in the EU, also with the involvement of the EIB.

“The Presidency will work closely with the Commission as well as with other institutions and strategic partners to develop new solutions in this area, which should have a positive impact both on the defense capabilities of the Member States and on the level of development of their industrial and R&D activities,” reads the program. Member States are called on to increase defense spending and keep it at a level commensurate with the threats.

The presidency will work to maximize support for Ukraine militarily, economically, and politically. Further sanctions against Russia and a proposal to use profits from the Bank of Russia’s immobilized assets are expected to fuel the debate on the external dimension.

An iron fist on hybrid attacks

In the internal security dimension, the Polish rotating Presidency will invest in protecting external borders and innovative solutions to migration, including establishing safe spaces in third countries. Warsaw also aims at finding an adequate answer to hybrid threats, such as the instrumentalization of migration used more recently by Russia and Belorussia to undermine lead to crisis on the East external border of the EU.

The Polish presidency will actively support the new approach on return policy that the European Commission is expected to present in the first 100 days of its mandate. This could also mean an acceleration of comprehensive agreements with countries of transit and origin involved in the main migration routes, which are claimed to be a good base for a win-win solution in matters spanning from migration to energy.

A democracy shield against disinformation

The fight against disinformation, information manipulation, and foreign interference will extend to defending democracy issues to reduce the impact of hostile action in cyberspace and other areas, such as environmental and climate policies.

The need for a new activism in the commercial policy

Under economic security, the Polish Presidency stands determined to support in favor of cohesion policies, encourage the creation of innovative industries, and cut red tape. Warsaw is requested to make efforts to advance towards a new reform of crisis management and deposit guarantee (the so-called CMDI) and on the payment services market package.

In indirect taxation, the intention is to continue efforts to close the VAT gap and introduce tighter requirements for e-commerce platforms to counter irregularities.

The biggest challenges will relate to the policy of the new US administration, commercial retaliations from China after the high customs duties imposed on imported electric battery vehicles, and the ratification process of the EU-Mercosur deal.

For economic security, the presidency considers a clean energy transition and affordable energy prices further essential. As drivers of climate policies, it prefers incentives instead of penalties and restrictions.

The Polish Presidency is charged with starting discussions on the new post-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF). Formal negotiations are expected to kick off not before the second half of 2025. Poland is, however, engaged in hosting a conference on the next MFF in February 2025, including a new own-resources system that includes financing for higher defense spending.

To make Europe’s energy supplies more secure and versatile, the presidency seeks full withdrawal from Russian fossil fuel imports while providing access to sufficient energy at lower prices to promote competitiveness.

Poland’s permanent representative to the EU, Agnieszka Bartol, told a journalist that the Polish presidency’s action in this policy field is twofold. It aims to diversify more and thus become more independent. The final objective, as she claimed during a press conference ahead of the start of the semester, is “to ensure affordable energy prices for citizens and businesses.”

The Polish Presidency shares the analysis of the Draghi report, which sees energy prices in Europe as one of the biggest obstacles to Europe’s competitiveness compared to the US and China.

The presidency will focus on food security by discussing a common agricultural policy that encourages rather than forces farmers to limit climate change. In the broader focus on agriculture, it intends to protect vulnerable agricultural sectors, increase overall resilience, and ensure that non-EU producers comply with EU standards.

A key objective of the semester is to simplify Common Agriculture Policy requirements in a way that is acceptable to farmers. The Polish government is also committing to making progress on the regulation protecting animals during transport, the regulation on new genomic techniques (Ngt), and the regulation on forest monitoring.

For secure public health policies in the EU, the presidency will concentrate on the digital transformation of healthcare, the work on the review of the pharmaceutical legislation, and a debate on critical medicines.