WARSAW — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has welcomed an EU plan that could allow Poland to be partially or fully exempt from taking in migrants.

“As I said, Poland will not take in migrants under the Migration Pact. Nor will we pay for it. The decision has been made. We don’t talk, we act,” Tusk wrote on X Tuesday evening. 

The European Commission on Tuesday announced which EU countries will be eligible for assistance in dealing with migration pressure, and which countries will be exempt from helping out as part of an EU Solidarity Pool.

It said that Poland — as well as Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia and Estonia — face significant migratory pressure and may request exemptions from the Solidarity Pool, which requires that member states accept a quota of asylum seekers, pay for each person they decline to take in, or offer another form of assistance.

The Polish government called the Commission’s plan a “major success,” saying Warsaw had lobbied for months to be recognized as among the countries facing “very serious migratory situations,” notably because of pressure at the Belarusian border and its role in hosting millions of refugees from Ukraine. 

“Our partners [in the EU] know it very well, we’re subject to a very big migration pressure and … we must not face any more commitments. The solution is that we will be able to apply for the exemption now and we will be able to do that in the future,” government spokesman Adam Szłapka said at a Wednesday press briefing.

The Commission’s annual migration assessment, released Nov. 10, found that irregular crossings into the EU were 35 percent lower in the July 2024 to June 2025 period compared to the previous 12 months. Still, several EU states continue to face sustained pressure from irregular arrivals and what Brussels describes as the “weaponisation of migration” by Russia and Belarus.

Tusk’s enthusiasm marks a U-turn on his earlier rhetoric. In 2021, as he toured Poland to canvass support ahead of the 2023 election that elevated him to power, he described migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border as “poor people seeking their place on Earth.” 

Migration has become one of the top issues in Polish politics, with most parties — both in government and opposition — against accepting asylum seekers under EU quotas.

It will be up to the European Council to decide which member states must contribute to solidarity measures and which get exemptions, based on assessments provided by the Commission.