Poland’s Tusk wants Iron Dome over Europe

6 months ago 35

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his counterparts from other countries will propose the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) defence umbrella to the European Council and the Commission “in a few days”, he announced on Monday.

The European Sky Shield initiative, which Tusk likened to an Iron Dome similar to Israel’s, was discussed by Tusk and his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen during Mette Frederiksen’s visit to Warsaw last month.

“Creating an iron dome against missiles and drones is necessary. (…) The recent attack on Israel showed how essential such systems are. There is no reason for Europe not to have its missile defence shield,” Tusk said on Monday, adding that one need not have much imagination to understand that Europe is also in the danger zone, just like Israel.

“That is why I am glad that Prime Minister (Frederiksen) responded positively to my proposal for Poland to join a European project that will effectively build a dome to protect our sky,” he added.

Tusk added that work on the project has indeed already begun in Poland.

Set up in 2022 by Germany in 2022, with 15 countries initially joining at the time, the project now has 21 participating countries, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

In Poland, however, the initiative has been criticised by President Andrzej Duda, who has described it as a “German business project” that Poland has not considered joining because it is pursuing its own initiatives alongside the US and the UK – referring to the Patriot systems, the first of which “are already in Poland”, while the others “will continue to be delivered.”

Duda, a former member of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which adopted a generally negative attitude towards Berlin and its initiatives during its eight-year rule before losing power last year, favours defence cooperation with Washington.

On the other hand, Tusk said he was not bothered by the Berlin-initiated ESSI project.

However, the head of the President’s National Security Office, Jacek Siewiera, said he did not believe there was a significant difference of opinion between the prime minister and the president on air defence and that if existing projects were effectively combined with ESSI with the participation of Polish industry, Duda would support it.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)