Polish, Estonian PM talk bilateral cooperation and EU issues in Warsaw

The European Union's migration policy and the possible “posted workers” rules are high on the agenda for Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło and Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas' talks, Bochenek said.

Migration policy

Brussels has launched a case against Warsaw over Poland's refusal to settle any migrants under a European Union plan to relocate migrants from camps in Greece and Italy across the bloc.

Since 2015 more than a million people from Africa and the Middle East arrived in Europe. The European Union agreed to relocate 160,000 of them across its member states by September 2017, but only about 25,000 have been resettled.

Posted workers

Paris is pushing for new rules for European Union nationals working within the bloc but outside of their home country to be paid at least the minimum wage of the country they are in.

This has been fiercely opposed by Poland and a number of countries in the region. Polish hauliers have said the new rules would make them far less competitive on foreign markets.

Infrastructure

The prime ministers are also expected to discuss the Rail Baltica and Via Baltica infrastructure projects.

Rail Baltica will ultimately allow freight and passenger connections from Finland to Poland via the Baltic states while bypassing Russia and Belarus. Its completion is planned in 2013. Together with road-route Via Baltica, it will make up part of the north-south Pan European transport corridor. (vb)

Ratas and Szydło had planned to meet earlier this month during planned talks between the prime ministers of Poland and the Baltic states but the Estonian government leader had been unable to attend due to issues at home. (vb)

Source: IAR