Macron: France to support Poland's transition away from coal

"France is very well aware just how big an effort Poland will have to make" - said Macron.

"Your energy mix is also an outcome of the history of Poland, a certain legacy, and so we must understand why Poland is in such situation and how much effort is expected from it" - he added.

The French president underscored he looked forward to the EU's climate neutrality push, however - he explained - he also opted for the mechanism of support for member states to achieve this goal.

From the budgetary point of view there's the Just Transition Fund - France will be calling for this fund to focus as much as possible on the poorest regions, most highly affected by the transition, and it will be none other than Poland that will benefit from it, in order to carry out its own energy and climate transition" - Macron stressed.

"Poland and France today reaffirmed their strategic partnership and desire to build strong Europe, a very strong Europe, defencewise of course, in cooperation with NATO and with NATO as the main focal point, but we also want to build strong defence industries, we want to build strong innovation industries" - PM Mateusz Morawiecki said.

The head of the Polish government also stressed the need for Franco-Polish cooperation in other areas such as electromobility, high-tech or infrastructural development, for instance, in connection with the construction of the Solidarity Transport Hub Poland.

"Trade brings states and nations together. For Poland, France is the fourth exporter to Poland, whereas Poland is the tenth importer of French products, however, it's worth mentioning that on France's list, Russia is 12th and Japan 14th, which makes Poland a more important trade partner than Russia and Japan, which is also bringing us ever closer" - Morawiecki said.

France and Poland should consider cooperation in nuclear energy, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday, as central Europe's largest economy looks for ways to reduce its dependence on coal.

Poland generates most of its electricity from coal but is planning to build its first nuclear power station to reduce carbon emissions, However, it is struggling to work out a financing model for the project.

"It would be good for France and Poland to examine together the possibility of collaboration in the nuclear domain," Le Maire said during an economic forum in Poland.

Le Maire also stressed the importance of European companies protecting their industrial data.

"It is legitimate that France, Poland, Europe protect their most critical technologies, protect technologies which have required public money," he said.

"Let's put in place a sovereign European cloud to protect our industrial data which is our most important property."