Polish PM in Lithuania for top-level talks

Morawiecki will also take part in a summit of prime ministers from the three Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

The talks with the Lithuanian president and prime minister will touch on the situation of Poles in Lithuania, who make up the country’s largest ethnic minority.

Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymański has said that some progress was made in securing the Polish diaspora’s rights since Polish President Andrzej Duda’s recent visit to Lithuania.

“This progress is still incomplete, but we need to appreciate [the Lithuanian leadership’s] good intentions,” Szymański said.

According to Duda, the challenges faced by Poles in Lithuania include inadequate Polish language instruction in schools and a lack of Polish-language exams.

Topics on the agenda of the upcoming prime ministers' summit will include collaboration as part of the European Union and NATO.

The prime ministers will also discuss the development of regional energy and transport infrastructures.

Szymański said the summit was a good opportunity to focus on issues such as the EU’s common market as well as the digital market, migration and the EU’s planned new rules on so-called posted workers.

The European Commission and Parliament recently negotiated a preliminary compromise on posted workers under which an employee sent abroad will have to be paid at least the minimum wage of the country they are in, even if they are employed by a company registered in their home country.

Morawiecki is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Latvian counterpart, Māris Kučinskis, and his Estonian opposite number, Jüri Ratas.

(aba/gs)

Source: IAR