Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his counterparts from other countries are expected to propose to the European Council and the Commission “in a few days” the defense umbrella of the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), he announced on Monday.

The European Sky Shield initiative, which Tusk likened to an iron dome similar to Israel’s, was discussed by Tusk and his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen during her visit to Warsaw last month.

“Establishing an iron dome against missiles and drones is essential. (…) The recent attack on Israel showed how necessary such systems are. There is no reason for Europe not to have its anti-missile shield,” Tusk said on Monday, adding that it does not take much imagination to understand that Europe is also in the danger zone, as is Israel.

“That’s why I’m glad that Prime Minister (Frederiksen) responded positively to my proposal for Poland to participate in a European project that will effectively build a canopy to protect our skies,” he added.

Tusk added that work on the project has indeed already begun in Poland.

The project, created in 2022 by Germany in 2022, with 15 countries initially participating then, today has 21 participating countries, the Polish Press Agency (PAP) reports.

In Poland, however, the initiative has been criticized by President Andrzej Duda, who described it as a “German business plan”. That’s why Poland didn’t think to join at the time, because it’s pursuing its own initiatives along with the US and the UK – such as the Patriot systems, the former of which are “already in Poland”, while the rest “will continue to surrender”, the Polish President had stated.

Duda, a former member of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has generally taken a negative stance toward Berlin and its initiatives during his eight-year rule, has been outspoken in favor of defense cooperation with Washington.

On the other hand, Tusk stated that he is not bothered by the ESSI project initiated by Berlin.

However, the head of the president’s National Security Office, Jacek Siewiera, said he did not believe there was a significant difference of opinion between the prime minister and the president on air defense and that if existing plans were effectively combined with ESSI with the participation of Polish industry, Duda would support it.