Polish PM, president at odds over European Sky Shield Initiative

WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland’s prime minister and president clashed on Tuesday over whether Warsaw should join the European Sky Shield Initiative air defence umbrella, as their fractious relationship spilled into issues of national security.

Israel’s repelling of a massive Iranian drone and missile salvo has brought the importance of air defence into even sharper focus for Poland, which borders Ukraine and has already seen missiles enter its airspace.

The European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) is a common air defence scheme set up by Germany in 2022 to boost European air defence. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has compared it to Israel’s Iron Dome system.

“In the case of Israel, over 90% of the missiles and drones were shot down…this system works,” Tusk told a news conference.

Tusk spoke after President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the previous nationalist government, described ESSI as a “German business project” that Poland hadn’t given any thought to joining as it was pursuing its own initiatives alongside the United States and Britain.

“We have been building an air defence system for years based primarily on the Patriot system, for the delivery of which we signed contracts a long time ago,” Duda said.

While Duda oversees the armed forces, decisions about arms purchases are made by the government, which Tusk leads, and cannot be blocked by the president.

Tusk said that Polish generals and the head of the National Security Bureau Jacek Siewiera, who reports to Duda, had told him it was a good idea for Poland to be part of several air defence projects.

He said cooperation with the United States on defence was crucial and there was no suggestion that Poland should pull out of air defence programmes that are already underway.

Siewiera told reporters that he did not think there was a big difference of opinion between the prime minister and president on air defence and that if existing projects are combined effectively with ESSI with the participation of Polish industry Duda would support this.

Tusk and Duda are already at loggerheads over issues ranging from abortion to judicial reform.

(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki, Anna Koper, Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Alexandra Hudson)