Poland is to open its borders with EU countries as of June 13, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced in Łochów, north of Warsaw, on Wednesday.

The PM added that as of June 16, Poland will relaunch international flights, but noted that carriers “will probably need a week, or two or three, to prepare a flight-connection network.”

“In some countries…this pandemic is still behaving in a very disturbing way, so for now we limit this decision (opening borders) to European Union countries,” Morawiecki said.

Morawiecki, visiting one of Poland’s largest styrofoam factories, said Poland needs to restore normal trade relations with the European Union countries as quickly as possible.

Poland closed its borders to foreigners in March to stop the spread of the coronavirus. However, it has been progressively loosening restictions on public life, with shopping centres, hotels and restaurants all reopening in May.

Poland has seen a recent rise in infections, mostly centred around coal mines in the south. On Monday 599 new cases were reported, a record.

As of Wednesday morning Poland, a country of around 38 million people, had reported 27,668 cases of the coronavirus and 1,191 deaths.

The Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jacek Czaputowicz has travelled to Prague on his first foreign visit since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

During his talks with the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tomáš Petříček, Minister Czaputowicz expressed his expectation that the Czech authorities would reciprocate Poland’s decision to allow the transit of Czech citizens through Poland.

Currently, many Poles working in Austria are forced to take a detour through Germany instead.

The head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs assessed that the epidemic situation in all the countries of the region, especially in the Visegrad Group countries, is much better compared to most other EU states.

There had earlier been suggestions that this fact could lead to a decision of the Visegrad Group states (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) to reopen the borders of the four states in a first phase before reopening to the rest of the EU.

The Czech FA Minister stated the country was ready to fully open its borders with countries which have a similar epidemiological situation by mid-June.

He also asked the Polish side to consider reopening additional border crossings leading into the Czech provinces of Liberec and Hradec Králové.

According to Minister Czaputowicz, the trend of new coronavirus cases in the respective countries will have to determine the final course of action, but he believes that it will be possible to travel between Poland and Hungary before the summer holidays begin.