Hello and welcome to another episode of the CER podcast. My name is Sophia Besson. I'm here today with Agata

Gostlinska, a research fellow here at the CEL. And we're going to talk about Poland and the relationship

between London and Warsaw post-Brexit. Theresa May is on a visiting tour to European capitals at the moment,

and yesterday she was in Warsaw. And Poland is a particularly interesting partner in the Brexit negotiations, not just because

of the large number of Poles who live in Britain, but also because Warsaw and London actually

share quite a few interests when they are in Brussels.

Agatha, in light of May's visit to Warsaw, the first question that comes to mind is, of course,

about Article 50.

We've heard over the last few weeks that there's quite a bit of pressure from institutions in Brussels

to trigger that article as quickly as possible.

What is Poland's position on when and how to start the divorce negotiations between Brussels and London?

The Polish Prime Minister, Barta Shedwo, said pretty clearly yesterday

that it's up to Britain to decide when to trigger Article 50

that sets out the legal process for Britain's departure from the EU. So you won't really see this pressure coming from

Warsaw. And I guess this is quite a sensible approach. Ultimately, it's up to a withdrawing member

state to decide when to notify its intention to leave.

But there's also something else that was very interesting to hear yesterday.

The Polish Prime Minister said that Poland realizes that Britain needs its time to sort out

how to approach Brexit negotiations, that it needs to prepare its administration for this very challenging process.

But the Polish Prime Minister also said that the EU itself needs time to prepare for those negotiations.

And again, I would say that this sounds quite sensible to me.

If you look at the initial responses to the

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