British PM visits Polish PM to shape future of Poles in UK

Today British Prime Minister Theresa May is visiting Poland and meeting with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło.

The talks, as the Polish PM announced at a press conference on Tuesday, are going to cover the subject of the situation of Poles living in the UK in the context of Brexit, as well as Polish-British bilateral relations.

This is the first time May is visiting Poland as the head of the British government. She took up the position on July 13th, after the former British PM David Cameron resigned due to the Brexit-referendum results. In the referendum in June the Brits voted in favour of leaving the European Union. 51.9% voters said yes to Britain leaving the EU and 48.1% wanted the country to remain in the Union.

Main topic: Poles in UK

Poles living in Britain expressed their fear of Brexit’s consequences clearly: a threat of coming back home or migrating somewhere else to try their luck has been bothering them ever since. It’s worth mentioning that with more than 850,000 of them in the UK, Poles constitute the largest national group among foreigners living there.

Polish Prime Minister announced at a press conference on Tuesday that the most important topic of the conversations with Theresa May will be the situation of Polish citizens who now live in the UK.

We will also talk about cooperation, after all, Britain is Poland’s important strategic partner. We have very tight bilateral relations. Britain is an important economic partner, but also an important partner when it comes to security issues, when it comes to matters related to military issues, – explained Szydło.

According to the deputy head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Konrad Szymański, today’s meeting of the PMs may be – alongside with Theresa May’s visits to Berlin and Paris – crucial in terms of political arrangement of the ground for negotiations on Great Britain leaving the European Union.