Polish President Andrzej Duda began a tour of southern Europe countries on June 8 to persuade them to support Ukraine’s EU candidate status.
Source: The Office of the Polish President
It is noted that the President of Slovakia Zuzana Chaputova was supposed to go with Duda, but due to a positive test for Covid 19, she was forced to cancel the trip.
Duda will first travel to Portugal to meet with Prime Minister Antonio Costa, then he arrives in Italy for talks with President Sergio Mattarella. The Polish leader will then travel to Romania to take part in the Bucharest Nine summit.
In addition to discussing the prospects of Ukraine’s membership in the EU, Andrzej Duda plans to discuss in Portugal and Italy the issue of food exports from Ukraine.
“We will talk about how to create international pressure to make this (grain export) successful, and how to overcome this problem,” the Polish President explained.
As reported, the European Parliament in its report on the impact of Russia’s aggression on the EU’s common security and defense policy, to be approved on June 8, will recommend that EU leaders grant Ukraine candidate status.
See also: Poland calls on the European Union to completely abandon Russian gas