Macron and Tusk Open First Polish-French Summit Amid Presidential Dispute

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Gdańsk on Monday for the 1st Polish-French Intergovernmental Summit, held on the occasion of the first-ever Polish-French Friendship Day, where he will hold talks with Prime Minister Donald Tusk focused on security, defense cooperation, and energy. Macron arrived at approximately 11:30 and was greeted by Tusk at the Golden Gate before proceeding to Uphagen's House for one-on-one talks. The summit is the first bilateral meeting at this level since the two leaders signed the Treaty of Nancy on May 9, 2025. That treaty covers military, economic, social, and cultural issues, and mandates annual bilateral summits alternating between Poland and France. According to the Government Information Centre, the agenda includes bilateral relations, security challenges in Europe, and allied and transatlantic relations. This is Macron's third visit to Poland, following trips in February 2020 and December 2024, but his first to Gdańsk.

Nawrocki excluded from summit, palace blames Tusk Polish President Karol Nawrocki will not meet with Macron during the visit, a decision that has drawn sharp criticism from the Presidential Palace. Presidential spokesperson Rafał Leśkiewicz stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not issue an invitation to Nawrocki, and attributed the omission directly to Prime Minister Tusk. „The President's Office informed about President Karol Nawrocki's desire to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron. The government is the organizer of the visit. Prime Minister Tusk was very keen on ensuring that the meeting between the two presidents did not take place. Therefore, he pushed for the visit to take place in Gdańsk, and not in Warsaw.” — Rafał Leśkiewicz via Onet Wojciech Kolarski, Secretary of State in the Presidential Chancellery, confirmed that no such meeting was proposed by the Prime Minister's office, noting that the summit's location in Gdańsk rather than Warsaw was a deliberate choice. Kolarski also observed that the Prime Minister's office holds a dominant role in European affairs, while the Presidential Palace's domain is transatlantic relations. Leśkiewicz described the exclusion as "an action against Poland's interest" and accused the government of using a foreign head of state's visit for domestic political purposes.

Expert: Nawrocki's EU veto made him unwelcome interlocutor Political analyst Agnieszka Cianciara from the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences offered an alternative explanation for the absence of a Nawrocki-Macron encounter, pointing to substantive rather than purely political factors. She argued that from the French perspective, Nawrocki would not be a constructive partner, citing his recent veto of the EU SAFE instrument, which she described as crucial for financing armament development, including Polish-French defense cooperation. „Relations between the French side and President Nawrocki's political camp, i.e., United Right, in the years 2015-2023 had the temperature of the Baltic in April.” — Agnieszka Cianciara via TOK FM Cianciara also noted that both Poland and France face elections in 2027, which gives both sides an incentive to advance cooperation as far as possible before potential political disruptions. Leśkiewicz, for his part, emphasized that Nawrocki and Macron had met recently in Paris and share similar views on security and EU policy.

EDF nuclear bid and defense contracts top the substantive agenda Beyond the diplomatic controversy, the summit carries significant economic and security stakes, with France hoping to advance a bid by EDF for the construction of Poland's second nuclear power plant. Security and defense cooperation will form the core of the plenary session, which is scheduled to begin at 14:45 at Artus Court, with a joint media statement planned for 16:15. General Roman Polko, former commander of the GROM special forces unit, told Fakt that the summit must produce concrete results rather than symbolic gestures, citing the seriousness of the current European security environment. „Today there is no time only for symbolic gestures. We need a realistic strengthening of both our potential and the potential of the European Union. Words must be followed by deeds: specifics regarding the presence of troops, defense industry cooperation, and a common stance on the most important threats.” — Roman Polko via Fakt The full program also includes a ceremony at the French Military Cemetery in Gdańsk's Siedlce district, where soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars and both World Wars are buried, with approximately 1,500 graves on site. Tusk and Macron are also scheduled to lay flowers at the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970 and attend the Bronisław Geremek Prize ceremony at the European Solidarity Centre, an award granted to individuals distinguished for their contribution to Polish-French relations.

Polish-French relations have historically been shaped by shared experiences of war, partition, and European integration, but the bilateral relationship lacked a formal enhanced cooperation framework until the Treaty of Nancy was signed on May 9, 2025. The treaty established April 20 as Polish-French Friendship Day and mandated annual intergovernmental summits. Macron's previous visits to Poland took place in February 2020 and December 2024. The summit comes against a backdrop of broader European efforts to strengthen defense cooperation independently of the United States, with Poland occupying a strategically significant position on NATO's eastern flank.

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