Poland Vows to Veto UK-Prompted Changes to EU Rules on Migrants

Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk (pictured) is criticizing a comment that British leader David Cameron made about Poles who work in Britain and claim UK child benefits for their families back home. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Poland's prime minister said on Tuesday  his country would veto any changes to EU rules aimed at reducing welfare payments for any particular nationality rather than applying equally to citizens of all EU member states.

"We will not agree to it if these are changes that would stigmatize any particular national minority," Donald Tusk said at a news conference.

"Nobody has the right to single out Poles as a particular group that abuses or exploits something," he fumed, adding that he would never do that to British tourists in Poland.

Donald Tusk said he would discuss these "unacceptable words" with Cameron over the telephone Wednesday.

In an interview with BBC last weekend, Cameron said, "There are European countries who, like me, think it's wrong that someone from Poland who comes here and works hard — and I'm absolutely all in favor of that — but I don't think we should be paying child benefit to their family back at home."