Polish Consulate...

We are taking a short break. We'll see you again in the New Year. Have a very good Christmas!

posted by: Oborski at 08:46 | link | comments (1) |

posted by: Oborski at 08:45 | link | comments |

Poland’s president Alexander Kwasniewski has said that Polish soldiers will remain in Iraq next year. However, the size of the stabilization forces in that country might be reduced...

The president told Polish Radio One that in the second half of 2005, troops will start to pull out to be replaced by the police force and peace-keeper units. He predicted that in the coming weeks, the wave of terrorist attack in Iraq will rise rather than subside. Supporters of Saddam Hussein still have arms and funds, and are frustrated over Hussein’s caputure, the Polish president observed. In his opinion, Hussein should stand trial in Iraq, in the presence of international observers.

Commenting on signals of possible terrorist attacks on Poland, Kwasniewski said there was no cause for panic and alarm, but there are reasons to be more vigilant and pay attention to suspicious behaviour and events. He argued that terrorist attacks in Poland are not likely to attract major international attention. Furthermore, Poland is a largely homogenous country, in which people who speak foreign languages or behave strangely immediately catch the eye.

A strike at Polish State Railways, which paralysed rail traffic in southern Poland, has been suspended...

The trade unions announced this decision after the parliament had decided to allocate an additional 550 million zlotys for regional connections. Talks are under way and agreement seems to be close in sight.

A commission investigating the circumstances of a recent crash of a government helicopter with the Polish prime minister on board has said that the most likely cause was build-up of ice on engine inlets...

Another – less probable reason – might have been poor quality of fuel. The commission ruled out other causes.

The helicopter crashed near Warsaw on December 4th. Several persons on board, including premier Leszek Miller, suffered injuries in the accident.

An underpass of a busy roundabout in the centre of the southern city of Katowice has collapsed...

The accident occured when a heavy crane entered the roundabout, causing the ceiling of the underpass to cave in. The crane tilted dangerously over the street, blocking traffic and causing a gigantic traffic jam. No one suffered in the accident.

Poland’s main statistical office has reported that GDP in the third quarter of the year rose by 3.9 percent, compared with the same period of last year...

The rate of unemployment at the end of November was 17.6 percent, the office said.

The ZOO in Chorzów, southern Poland, might have to get rid of its residents due to the lack of funds to upgrade the garden’s standards to meet the EU requirements...

Tigers, hippos and monkeys are in the most difficult situation as there is no money to enlarge their cages. Zoological gardens in Poland have 18 months to adjust to ERU standards.

posted by: Oborski at 19:57 | link | comments |

Interesting article from The New York Times...

Poland Takes Pride in Assertive Stance Toward Neighbors

WARSAW, Dec. 18 — Poland is on the outs with much of Europe these days, but to judge from the defiance of its top officials, opposition leaders and ordinary Poles, that suits people here just fine.

The country has been in a chest-thumping mood since last weekend, when Poland and Spain broke up a summit meeting on the new European constitution by refusing to yield to demands by France and Germany that they accept a new, less favorable voting system for the European Union.

"Poland needs to stand up for itself," said Katarzyna Lukomska, 40, a midwife who was shopping for a winter hat this week. "We can only stand to gain from it in the long run."

That is very much a matter of debate. Europe's paymasters, led by France and Germany, are petitioning to freeze the union's budget — a move seen by some as a form of payback to Poland, which expects to be a prime recipient of European aid after it joins the union in May.

Yet even the threat of financial retaliation has not dented the enthusiasm of Poles for the hard line taken by their leaders. Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who arrived at the summit meeting in Brussels in a wheelchair, nursing injuries from a helicopter crash, has reversed a downturn in his political fortunes.

While the dispute centered on the arcane question of how to apportion the voting rights of the different members of the union, it has laid bare deep-seated feelings of resentment and insecurity, as well as a new assertiveness, on the part of Poles.

Despite a population of 39 million and by far the largest economy in Central Europe, many here fear that Poland will not be treated as a full partner in a greater Europe.

"We keep seeing ourselves as a small country," Danuta Hübner, the minister for European affairs, said in an interview. "In fact, Poland is a big country. We are half of what is joining Europe in terms of population. We should have the responsibilities that come with being a big country."

Such talk is heard more and more often these days. Five months before it adds 10 new countries with 75 million people, the European Union seems to be cleaving into two camps — one centered on France and Germany, the other encompassing an assortment of bantam and middleweight countries.

This latest crisis erupted two weeks after Germany and France effectively vitiated the fiscal rules that govern the countries using the euro as their common currency, refusing to bring their budget deficits under a mandated ceiling.

For Europe's smaller countries — as well as would-be members, who are dutifully bringing their finances into line with European standards — the impunity with which France and Germany acted suggests that the union keeps a different rulebook for its biggest members.

In Poland's case, the frictions with Germany and France have been aggravated by Warsaw's staunch support of the American-led war on Iraq, which Berlin and Paris just as staunchly opposed.

After the meeting in Brussels fell apart, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany bitterly criticized Poland and Spain, though not by name. Two countries, he said, had been "unable to change their way of thinking and acting." They had "left the European idea behind" in pursuit of their own interests.

Ms. Hübner, who is expected to be appointed Poland's representative on the European Commission next year, shrugs off Mr. Schröder's remarks with a serene smile.

Poland, she said, has little choice but to cling to the rules that were hammered out in hard-fought negotiations three years ago in Nice. Under that agreement, Poland and Spain were each awarded nearly the same number of votes as the more populous France, Germany, Britain and Italy.

Germany and France are seeking to insert rules into the constitution that would shift power back to the bigger countries, by ensuring that decisions could be passed if a majority of countries representing at least 60 percent of the union's population voted in favor of them.

"We based our prereferendum campaign on the Nice formula," Ms. Hübner said, referring to the ballot here last June in which 77 percent of voters favored joining the European Union. "It would be very difficult to have to tell people, `What you voted for is no longer the case.' "

But the lopsided margin suggests that Poles would have voted for the union, whatever the voting arrangements. Few here dispute that joining Europe will bring more benefits than costs.

Still, the Nice accord has become a touchstone. A prominent Polish opposition leader, Jan Rokita, summed up the feeling when he declared, "Nice or death" — a sound bite that instantly became a slogan.

The issue, simply put, is one of respect. People here believe that Poland, by dint of its size, warrants special treatment. Beyond that they believe that Germany, historically one of Poland's oppressors, and France, historically Poland's champion, need to be curbed.

"The Nice treaty keeps a balance between old, rich countries and new emerging countries," said Waclaw Rejdych, 43, a businessman doing Christmas shopping. "I don't want to be penalized because Germany has a much bigger economy than Poland."

But most Poles, perhaps reflecting their bruised history, fully expect that they will be penalized. "There's no question that France and Germany will use money to punish Poland," said Elzbieta Jozwik, a university student. "That's what strong nations do to weaker ones."

The immediate winner from the standoff was Prime Minister Miller, who leads Poland's Social Democrats. Mr. Miller had been plagued by scandals and swooning opinion poll numbers when a helicopter he was riding in crashed in a forest outside Warsaw on Dec. 4. The impact fractured two of his vertebrae.

He soldiered through the summit meeting, against the advice of doctors, before returning home to the hospital. In a show of support as rare as it may be fleeting, Poland's political establishment lined up behind him.

Mr. Miller told the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza that the dispute might delay the adoption of a European constitution for at least the first half of next year.

Not everybody here applauds Poland's intransigence. Marek Ostrowski, a leading foreign affairs commentator, said it was less a principled stand than a display of Poland's insecurities and pathologies.

Rather than defer to Poland, Mr. Ostrowski predicted, Germany and France will find a way to bypass it. He also questioned why Poland was so intent on cultivating an "exotic alliance" with Spain instead of working to close the gap with its natural partner, Germany.

"It serves no purpose at all," he said. "It is just an exercise in national pride to serve a domestic audience."

posted by: Oborski at 14:43 | link | comments |

It has just been revealed that a number of suspicious people from high risk countries were detained on one of Poland’s borders a few days ago...

None of them were able to explain the purpose of their trip to Poland. ‘This’, said interior minister Krzysztof Janik, ‘was the reason to tighten security measures at Christmas time. The minister spoke about external signals implying potential terrorist attacks in numerous countries including Poland.

‘European Union leaders cannot reunite Europe, if they slash the bloc's future budget, claims the executive European Commission...

Michel Barnier, regional Policy Commissioner, said the EU would need more, not less spending to narrow a huge gap between eastern and western Europe after enlargement. He was reacting to a call by six of the EU's biggest net contributors - Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria - to cut the bloc's budget for 2007-2013 to
1 percent of Gross National Income. This idea raised concerns in Poland earlier this week and was perceived as a an attempt to punish Warsaw for its tough position on voting rights in Brussels.

‘The fiasco of the Brussels EU summit should not be overestimated and Poland should now concentrate on finding the support of small and medium-sized countries in the dispute over the constitution of enlarged European Union’, says Senate speaker Longin Pastusiak...

Poland has about three months to do so as the following intergovernmental conference will be held at the beginning of the second quarter of 2004. The Senate speaker expressed hope that Ireland, who will take the rotating EU presidency over from Italy, will be more eagrer to reach compromise than Italy was. ‘By defending the stipulations of the Nice Treaty Poland is acting in the interests of small and medium countries’, claims Longin Pastusiak.

Talks between railway workers and government representaives were resumed late this afternoon, after they had been suspended at the request of the rail unionists...

The protesting railway workers are demanding the introduction of the restructuring programme of the sector and bringing back suspended connections. A number of unionists throughout the country are on hunger strike and threaten with a general strike. All issues postulated by the railway workers were discussed during today’s talks and money for regional rails guaranteed by deputy prime minister Jerzy Hausner. The unionists do not believe these assurances and demand the postulates be written down. The decision as to the general strike has not been made yet.

Poland is numbered among the countries whose gross domestic product is the lowest in Europe...

According to recent statistics compiled by the Eurostat centre Poland, Malta and Cyprus are the only countries in which the GDP did not rise last year. As far as Poland’s level of GDP is concerned it is by 41 per cent lower than the EU’s average. The figure has remained unchanged since 1999. This means that Poland and the three Baltic states will be the poorest members of enlarged European Union.

A record smuggling of 33 thousand packets of cigarettes has been thwarted at the Polish-Russian border checkpoint in Goldapia...

The contraband was found special compartments in the floor, walls and ceiling of a Russian coach travelling to Poland to collect a group of Russian tourists. Had the cigarettes entered the black market, the state would have lost nearly 2 million zloty that is about half a million dollars.

The ZOO in Chorzów, southern Poland, might have to get rid of some of its residents due to lack of funds needed to upgrade the garden’s standards to the requirements of the European Union...

Tigers, hippos and monkeys are in the most difficult situation as there is no money to enlarge their cages. Zoological gardens have 18 months to adjust their conditions to EU standards, no works aimed in this direction have started in Chorzów so far.

posted by: Oborski at 18:59 | link | comments |

From Warsaw Voice

"If I am the black sheep [of the commission], I'll be one only in the positive meaning of the word."
-Renata Beger, a deputy from Samoobrona, who was removed from the Sejm commission investigating the Rywingate scandal due to her own problems with the law

"From the point of view of all the legal scandals, problems with the prosecutor, primitive thinking, and moral vulgarity, there has been no Sejm like this one for a long time. It is terrifying."
-Foreign Affairs Minister W³odzimierz Cimoszewicz on the Polish parliament

"Józef Oleksy didn't invite me to the meeting with the pope because he was afraid I would arrive in a miniskirt."
-Aleksandra Jakubowska, head of the political cabinet of Prime Minister Leszek Miller

"I have the feeling-maybe I'm being malicious-that lowering the excise tax on vodka was the biggest lawmaking achievement of the Sejm in years."
-Marcin Król, a columnist, editor-in-chief of Res Publica Nova magazine, on the results of the Sejm's work

"We got the T-shirts from a teacher who got them as a present from a friend who works for the company."
-A student from the junior high school in Nowogród Bobrzañski, Wielkopolska province, asked about the origin of advertising T-shirts of a local liquor producer worn by a large number of young people

"Russia must not be exposed to the risk of electing the head of the state every four years."
-Nikita Mikhalkov, a Russian film director, on the idea of amending the constitution so that Vladimir Putin's presidential term can be extended significantly

"What am I paying you for? Shoot him!"
-Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of Russian nationalists, to his bodyguards, after an incident at a TV studio where he attacked a political expert but was summarily beaten up by him

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Poland will resist any possible threats for the EU to punish this country for blocking an agreement on the new EU constitution...

Six EU member states called for the cap on the EU’s budget for 2007-2013 to be lowered to one percent of the Gross national Income.Poland’s head of diplomacy said he does not see any links between the proposed cap on Eu spending and the fiasco during the Brussels summit.Speaking at the Upper House this morning Cimoszewicz said that a dispute over EU funding was expected and cannot be treated as an element of blackmail. Poland and Spain have rejected the proposed new voting system , which would give the two countries much less power that earlier agreed upon during the Nice summit in 2000.

Poland’s prime minister Leszek Miller, who after the Brussels summit returned to hospital , where he is recovering from the spine fracture he suffered in a recent helicopter crash, said that Poland has to be seen as a country which has views based on solid reasoning and this reasoning can be modified but only through arguments and not through threats.

Talks with representatives of protesting railway workers and government have not ended in any agreement...

Railway workers continue their protest throughout the country, and threaten with a general strike if no agreement with the government is reached, some of the railworkers are on hunger strike. Speaking for Polish Radio the head of the Solidarity trade union grouping railway workers, has said that the government proposal to finance regional communication through regional authorities is absurd. Polish State railways and its services a should be financed from the budget ,said Stanislaw Kogut. Both sides have agreed to prepare a protocol, but nothing has a s yet been decided as to the demands and to the continuation of protests.

The second edition of the conference Ukraine in Europe opens on Thursday in Warsaw...

The aim of the meeting , held under the patronage of Poland’s president Alexander Kwasniewski, is to present the main problems which accompany Ukraine’s relations with the west as well as enhancing Poland’s determination to support Ukraine on her road to join western structures.

67 % of Poles are unhappy with prime minister Leszek Miller leading the government, only 16% accept him as premier, while 73% negatively asses the government’s proceedings...

According to a recent poll conducted by the CBOS agency only 15% of the respondent consider that the government’s policy creates chances for improvement of living conditions, while 72% think otherwise.

Polish Copper Mining Company continues to investigate the causes of the accident which took place on Monday in the colliery in Lubin, south western Poland...

Two tonnes of dynamite exploded 600 meters underground ,43 miners were taken to hospital , many with serious injuries and burns. The head of the company said that the accident should have never happened , all explosives are under special supervision and the ongoing investigation will provide an answer to the causes of the explosion.

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On Saturday 20th we are holding the Wyre Forest Anglo-Polish Society Christmas Party at the Polish Ex-Combatants Club in Kidderminster. Phone Mike on (01562) 823911 if you want further details.

This Consulate is providing the BIGOS. The first cooking is simmering as I speak. It will be reheated to perfection over the intervening days!

For those not in the know BIGOS ("Hunters Stew") is THE Polish national dish. Every Polish family has its own recipe which is of course the only truly correct one! Visit the online BIGOS BAR to learn more.

You will need:-
large jar of sauerkraut
half a small white cabbage (shredded)
desert spoonful of dried mushrooms previously soaked for 2 to 3 hours in warm water
at least 1lb Polish Sausage (boiling ring)
half pound diced raw pork
sugar
peppercorns
bay leaves
tomato puree (one tube)
caraway seeds
sugar
vinegar
two decent size glasses of red wine
one small class of brandy

Rinse sauerkraut thoroughly and drain. Place in a saucepan with shredded cabbage. Drain and add the soaked dried mushrooms plus 15 - 20 peppercorns, 2 or 3 bay leaves, a pinch of caraway seeds, diced pork, and diced Polish Sausage.

Cover with water, bring to the boil, and simmer gently for between 60 and 90 minutes.

Add 4 tablespoons (at least) tomato puree, 2 glasses of red wine, a glass of brandy, a tablespoon of sugar, and a desert spoon of vinegar and simmer gently for a further 30 to sixty minutes. Add more wine and / or water if it looks dry.

Reheat, preferably several times over several days, before serving. It is best cooked slowly and reheated over at least one or two days.

It can be served alone or with boiled potatoes. On Saturday we will be serving it with Polish style pork cutlets!

posted by: Oborski at 21:55 | link | comments |

Poland has been hit by the first spell of truly harsh winter conditions this cold season...

The whole country is experiencing a mix of rain and snow. Gusty winds going up to 130 kilometers per hour accompanied by around freezing point temperatures have made driving conditions exteremely dangerous. Road maintenance services have been busy, but the rapidly changing weather has made much of their efforts futile. Slippery roads and excessive speed have been the main reasons for a number of serious accidents, even on major highways.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski has stated that there is no need to dramatize the inconclussive ending of the EU summit in Brussels...

He emphasized the near possibility of some constructive propositions appearing in relation to the new constitution charter of the enlarged Union. Kwasniewski said, the several months before the next major EU gathering will give the much needed time to reflect on the arguments of all the sides concerned. The Polish president pointed out that the reservations speak not only of the manner in which a system of decision making representation is to be established, but also relate to the whole concept of a united Europe. He suggested all disputes on the Nice Treaty be put aside, as the agreements will be binding as of May 2004, anyway. Then, after checking them in practice, we can return to the issue, Kwasniewski said.

Poland’s European Affairs minister Danuta Huebner said the lack of compromise on the EU constitution cannot be seen as a negotiating fiasco...

On the other hand the outcome of the Brussels conference should not be a surprise to anyone, she added. The positive side of the issue is that the discussion on the shape of the constitution continues and now we will have more time to analyze the respective countries’ stands, remarked Huebner. She said Poland had been treated as an equal partner in Brussels and none of the participants accused it of ill will and blocking the process of negotiations. The European Affairs minister underscored that speculations about cuts in EU funding for Poland are totally groundless.

Head of Polish diplomacy Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said Poland cannot be blamed for the ineffectiveness of talks at the Brussels intergovernmental conference...

He reminded that this country’s stand had been made public well in advance and its actions had been fully predictable. I left Brussels with a craving for a more in depth discussion and I’m confident the nearest period will provide such opportunities, Cimoszewicz concluded.

Commenting on the capture of Saddam Hussein, Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski said he considered it a crucial development for the success of the stabilization process in Iraq...

In the president’s opinion, Poland’s peace mission there may be shortened to conclude by mid 2005. However, the next few weeks can be characterized by certain destabilization of the situation in Iraq, as frustration among the former dictator’s supporters can lead to a series of uncoordinated actions, including terrorist attacks, the president told Polish Radio.
Kwasniewski denied press rumours that the elite Polish special forces unit GROM played any direct role in Saddam’s arrest near Tikrit, confirming that the operation had been carried out solely by American troops.
The Polish president said that Saddam Hussein should be brought to justice as quickly as possible and his trial should take place in Iraq.

Finance minister Andrzej Raczko has disclosed his department’s analyses show predictions of a 3.6% GDP growth this year, considerably better than in government set annual targets...

Raczko said the Polish economy has been experiencing significant enlivening, evidenced by growing consumption dynamics. The situation on the labor market has improved, as well, going down to a current 17.4%.
Less optimistic data have been released today by the Central Office of Statistics. In November, inflation figures went up by 2.1%, while prices of goods and services were 1.6% higher than in the corresponding period last year. However, the growth tendencies in all these areas are still below central bank predictions, even if they attain two digit levels in the first months of 2004.

Former deputy interior minister Zbigniew Sobotka has testified at the district prosecutor’s office in Kielce...

Sobotka is charged with leaking information about a covert police operation to former city councilmen in Starachowice, who were linked to an organized crime ring. Earlier, the House stripped him of parliamentary immunity and he had been recalled by the interior minister following serious pressure from the media when the whole affair had been discovered. Talking to reporters after today’s interrogation, Sobotka has upheld his plea of innocence.

It has been brought over for the 13th time already by Polish scouts, who presented it to president Kwasniewski at a special ceremony in Warsaw. The Polish scouts will traditionally share the Light of Peace with their colleagues from Belarus, Lithuania and Russia.

posted by: Oborski at 01:08 | link | comments |

POLISH LEADERS ACROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM RALLY TO BACK MILLER’S BRUSSELS STAND...

Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller has been widely praised by Polish commentators and politicians for his firm stand at the Brussels UE summit which he attended in a wheel-chair following a painful spine fracture sustained in a helicopter crash earlier this month.

His rejection of a constitutional deal on German terms will ease opposition pressure on the unpopular left-wing government, and probably make it easier for difficult budget austerity reforms to get through parliament.

"The Polish delegation did its job. Approval of the constitution would have meant...Poles had no say on EU policies," said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the rightist Law and Justice party, usually a tough critic of the Polish government.

Polish politicians reject Western accusations that they have proved ungrateful to Germany which had strongly backed Warsaw's EU membership drive.

"Germany's help for our EU aspirations...should be seen in a wider historic context. Germany, after all, built its prosperity thanks to membership of the Western bloc, from which Poland had been excluded for decades," said Jozef Oleksy, chief of parliament's EU committee.

"We simply want to show that we will not blindly follow orders from bigger countries. It's a question of respect for our point of view to build a Europe comfortable for all," he added.

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From the war zones of Iraq to the diplomatic battlefields of Brussels, one country is rapidly gaining a reputation for being the new bad boy in the European bloc.

It has been by far the toughest negotiating partner for Brussels in the long and complicated process to join the EU.

It backed US President George W. Bush on Iraq with rhetoric and men on the ground, triggering bitter criticism in France and Germany. And it is Berlin's most diehard opponent at this weekend's EU summit on the constitutional overhaul of how power is wielded and decisions taken within the councils of Europe.

Five months before it is integrated into the club of western democracies, Poland is being cast by some of its new EU partners as a troublemaker. "We're certainly going in with a bang," admitted a senior Polish official. "And the Germans won't forget this."

The latest display of refusing to toe the line came 10 days ago in Naples, when European ministers were toiling over the new EU defense policy.

Why, some of the 25 foreign ministers wanted to know, was the new EU military planning cell to be described as "permanent"? To distinguish the European approach, came the answer, from the American penchant for constructing ad hoc "coalitions of the willing" or temporary military alliances.

"In that case," piped up the Polish foreign minister, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, "we should call it the coalition of the unwilling. Maybe that would be a more precise and more realistic description of the situation."

The jibe highlighted frank Polish contempt for France and Germany's defense ambitions for Europe, the determination not to be talked down to by the EU's traditional heavyweights, and Warsaw's utter devotion to America as its indispensable strategic partner and security guarantor.

"We need a stronger European security and defense policy. There's no doubt about that. The Balkan experience was humiliating for all of Europe," says Cimoszewicz. "But we still have some doubts."

Poland's demands to be treated seriously as a regional European power and its robust defense of its perceived interests are fraught with risks.

Apart from Britain, Poland was the only European country that committed itself to combat in Iraq, with commandos storming targets at the beginning of the war. It now has 2,500 troops deployed in Iraq. In November, Major Hieronim Kupczyk became Poland's first combat casualty since World War II when he was killed in an ambush in Iraq.

This weekend in Brussels, Warsaw could notch up a significant victory by frustrating German plans to overhaul the EU's decision-taking machinery, denying the Germans, at least temporarily, a new constitutional system of power sharing through the way majority decisions are taken.

Both Berlin and Warsaw insist they will not budge from their positions. Poland's frankness was again evident on Monday when the prime minister, Leszek Miller, warned of an EU summit "confrontation" that could end in "fiasco."

There are plenty of pundits in Warsaw who worry that the Poles are punching above their weight -- over Iraq, over Nato, over the US, and over the EU -- and blundering by alienating Germany, their key partner and neighbor.

But Poland's blunt talking is being encouraged by its belief that it is the only tactic that brings dividends.

"We are not a very easy customer," says Roza Thun, president of the Robert Schuman Foundation in Poland, a pro-EU body. "But that's maybe our strength. No one took us seriously before. Now the attitude [abroad] has changed. The EU likes us less, but they treat us more seriously."

Earlier this year the French told the Poles to shut up over Iraq, while the Germans have muttered about the Poles being the US' Trojan horse in the EU. In Brussels, the Poles are fed up with being told they are not "good Europeans."

But of the 10 countries joining the EU in May, Poland is as big as the other nine combined, with all that that implies for markets, territory, the military, strategy, and, not least, being listened to.

"Joining the EU is very important and we're very grateful. But let's not forget about the political and the historical dimension," says the foreign minister.

For this country of 38 million, in a strategically important position and dominated for centuries by Germany and Russia, the "historical dimension" is an intense obsession that may seem baffling in the west. It is the wellspring of Poland's attachment to the US at a time of transatlantic estrangement.

"Security is the most important thing in this country and Europe does not give us that," says Thun, an ardent pro-European.

Adam Michnik, the outstanding liberal Polish patriot and editor of eastern Europe's first and most successful independent newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, says the sobering events of recent months, from the rows over Iraq to the tough negotiations over joining the EU, have seen the Poles find their voice internationally.

"There's no point preaching to us or pushing us. It won't work. We didn't regain our own voice just to give it up. The most important thing is that Poland has recovered its independence and we will speak with an independent voice. We have the same right to that as the French or the Germans."

On America and Europe, Michnik waxes positively Blairite: "For Poland, the democratic west has always been out there. We can't see how the US can be a threat to the democratic west. The essence is that we do support a long-lasting Euro-Atlantic alliance because the US presence in Europe serves Europe well and we won't support any actions that try to eliminate the US from Europe."

Having got rid of the Red Army garrisons, the Poles are eager to welcome a US military presence and are hoping some forces will be redeployed from bases in Germany to Poland. Senior US officials have been in Warsaw this week discussing plans for reconfiguring how the US projects its military clout.

The trajectory that has landed Poland in Nato and on the threshold of entry to the EU has spanned more than a decade, with governments following the same consistent policies since the overthrow of communism in 1989.

The irony is that Poland's claims to be heard internationally are being articulated by a center-left government which is the country's most unpopular since that revolution.

And with an eye on this weekend's summit battles, he intimates that Brussels and Berlin have not heard the last they will hear from Warsaw.

"Anybody who believes that they can convince us of changing our well-justified positions and arguments is wrong. They will understand that sooner or later."

posted by: Oborski at 00:31 | link | comments |

Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who braved severe pain to attend the meeting after fracturing his spine in a helicopter crash last week, said tonight it was difficult to predict the outcome of the EU Conference in Brussels. He gives it a 50 : 50 chance of success.

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Prime Minister Leszek Miller received doctors' permission to travel to the European Union summit in Brussels on Friday. Miller suffered a spine fracture in a helicopter crash a week ago, but a team of medical experts from the Interior Ministry Hospital in Warsaw where the Prime Minister was staying opined he could make the trip on condition of wearing a body cast. The Prime Minister had been wheel-chaired to the round table debates in the Council building in Brussels where the Union’s 25 present and future members are meeting in hope of forging a constitutional charter for the enlarged EU.
Poland is the main contender in a dispute over the provisions of a future constitution, because of its firm opposition, along with Union member Spain, to a new voting system backed by EU’s major players - France and Germany.
The Prime Minister is delivering a speech in defence of the Polish stand relating to the provisions of the Nice Treaty and on including reference to Christian values in the European Constitution’s preamble.

President expects Spanish support...

President Aleksander Kwasniewski has expressed confidence that Spain will stand by Poland in its defence of the Nice Treaty during the Brussels government level talks. He reiterated Poland’s readiness to search for positive solutions to the voting rights issue, but said that this country’s strategy would be based on explaining the reasons for it’s persistence in calling for at least trial implementation of the December 2000 agreement. Let’s give Nice a chance, appealed the president. Speaking for Polish Radio, Kwasniewski sceptically assessed chances for a last minute compromise success signalled by Italian premier Sylvio Berlusconi. He described the situation around the future EU constitution as complicated to such an extent, that any sudden breakthrough in negotiations should not be expected. President Kwasniewski said, however, that he was hoping for some significant solutions being tabled in Brussels which might be given serious consideration by the gathered government heads.

Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Poland’s former European integration minister, has stated that there does exist a chance for reaching a compromise on the future EU voting system. But nothing dramatic will happen, if the Brussels summit ends inconclusively, added Wolski, explaining that the Nice agreements would become binding and the only negotiable points would be limited to deciding on its revision, or postponing its implementation. Poland has a strong bargaining position on the Nice Treaty and should concentrate on maintaining the favorable terms negotiated three years ago, suggested the former minister.

Two Polish soldiers have been wounded in Iraq this morning. They were injured during a mine clearing operation near Karbala in the south-central stabilization zone. A convoy heading for an ammunition depot had been crossing a road when a remote controlled mine exploded under one of the trucks. The wounded Poles were taken by an American helicopter to a military hospital in Baghdad. One of the soldiers is reported in serious condition.

The Sejm, or Lower House of parliament has paid tribute to the victims of the 1981 Martial Law in Poland. 22 years ago, on December 13th , the erstwhile communist authorities proclaimed martial law in an attempt to quell calls for democratic changes to the system and demonstrations in support of the independent Solidarity trade union. The so-called Council of National Salvation led by general Jaruzelski introduced military supervision over practically all spheres of public and private life. Special police forces clashed with protesters in the first days of this internal state of war, while thousands of opposition activists had been interned for long months. Martial Law was officially recalled on July 22nd 1983, but its effects persisted for several more years, until the grand political and economic transformations initiated six years later.

And finally, a brief look at the weather map of Poland...... Mercury readings ranged from 1 to 5 centigrade at midday. Strong southwesterly winds pushed away a rainy strip, but no clearing has been envisaged as snow is replacing the dripping clouds. The night is going to be colder with temperatures from freezing point in northwest declining to minus 7 degrees Celcius in the northeast.

posted by: Oborski at 00:55 | link | comments |

Prof. Miroslawa Marody from the Sociology Institute of Warsaw University, talks to Andrzej Jonas and Witold Zygulski.

"Poles frequently emphasize that we are wonderful as a nation but that the world does not provide us with opportunities to manifest this. It's a kind of an "ugly duckling complex"...

Do you agree that one's self-esteem can play a constructive role in the life of an individual or community?
It's hard not to agree. Various studies show that much depends on the way we define ourselves and the way we feel inside. Our inner disposition has a significant influence on our behavior. It is a universal regularity and Poles are subject to it like everybody else.

What is the general MOOD of Poles today?
Research shows that Poles individually evaluate themselves quite well, but they have a worse opinion about themselves as a nation. For example, there was a survey in which respondents compared the character traits of the average Pole with those of the average Western European. There were 18 traits listed, and Poles found themselves better in only four. There was a particularly large discrepancy (50 percent) with "self-confidence." At the same time, Poles frequently emphasize that we are wonderful as a nation but that the world does not provide us with opportunities to manifest this. It's a kind of an "ugly duckling complex;" we know that the magnificent swan is hidden in us and we blame the world for not seeing it.

The pessimistic vision of reality, prevalent among Poles today, is also a sort of defense mechanism-it allows us to put the responsibility for our problems on external factors such as the authorities, history, neighbors, Moscow, Brussels and so on.

Do you think that accession to the European Union will affect our ability to change ourselves?
I definitely do, as there is one, potentially crucial factor related to it-we are gaining much more open contacts with the outside world. But it is too little to cause a change automatically. EU accession looks very good in the language of symbols: a door opens, we enter the room and start behaving accordingly; we take advantage of achievements of modern knowledge etc. Most Poles see accession as their hope for the future, for changes for the better. But this hope is largely based on the reasoning that "the EU will do this and that for us." The EU is supposed to educate our politicians, fight corruption, implement just legislation-do all the work that we know has to be done, but somehow are unable to start. This is an illusory line of reasoning-Europe is not going to settle our problems for us. The EU has its own problems; it has no reason to be bothered with ours.

That doesn't sound too optimistic...
It doesn't, but in order to have a reason to be optimistic, we have to realize the actual situation. What is most dangerous in thinking about the future is the widespread conviction that Poland's joining the EU will make a total change in our lives. That can have just one result: in a year's time there will be a colossal sense of disappointment that nothing has changed or even-in the most pessimistic scenario-has changed for the worse.

We have talked about the dangers; what about the opportunities?
Although we criticize so much the state of the Polish economy, it is still our greatest asset. If you consider Central Europe, or the group of candidate countries, we are still in the lead in terms of economic reform. The problem is that we have reached a certain level of competence and are unable to further develop without realizing that the modern economy requires specialized knowledge. It is no longer enough just to use common sense, as has been the case in Poland so far, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises being the engine of reform and economic growth. Poles are, in fact, convinced of the necessity to invest in education and they try doing it on their own. Higher education, however, is very expensive, especially for people from provincial areas who have to pay for their lodging in university cities. They also have fewer chances to pass entrance exams for public universities due to the low level of local elementary and high schools. Without systematic solutions in this domain, it's impossible to cross this threshold of development capabilities; it's also impossible to attain a higher level of social justice, which, according to surveys, is a priority for Poles.

Another unquestionable asset of Poland is the famous resourcefulness of Poles, but on the one condition that we learn how to use it without ruining the basis of a liberal-democratic system.

What role do politicians play in all this?
EU accession definitely opens new opportunities for the Polish political elite, but the opportunities cannot be clearly defined. After all, it may happen that the current elite will divide into two groups that will keep on pursuing their own interests, but in different contexts: one will be focused on making careers within EU institutions, and the other will form a local elite, struggling to survive from election to election. An optimistic version would require Polish politicians to finally understand that ruling is not just about holding offices and defending single values, but first of all about working out a coherent concept for the future life of Polish society, starting with an answer to what kind of capitalism we want to build in Poland. After all, these days there are many different models to choose from. They should all be discussed and the one that offers the best chances for development should be chosen. Poland lacks such discussions.

Polish politicians would have to find out for themselves, or be persuaded, that in the new situation, thinking in terms of long-term interests can be more profitable than thinking "from election to election."

Do you see any chance of this kind of transformation?
It will be seen over the next few months as, evidently, the plan by Deputy Prime Minister Jerzy Hausner [concerning repair of the state's finances by rationalizing state expenditures, primarily by cuts in the social sector-ed.] is such an attempt to adopt a long-term perspective. It even features an unprecedented argument addressed to the opposition: "Help us now so you don't have to do it yourselves later on."

The chance to "improve" Polish politicians also depends on joining this kind of social dialogue by others elites-intellectuals and businesspeople. The discussion should also include this more or less one-quarter of Polish society that does not need to "enter Europe," as it is already there, accepting principles the same as those underlying the European civilization of today. These days, one can get the impression that those people have chosen a sort of "inner emigration." They try to create a substitute West by, for example, working for foreign companies that operate in Poland, shopping in stores selling products of well-known Western companies, living in guarded, luxurious neighborhoods, or even just by taking interest in the problems that concern better developed societies in the West. As a result, Poland seems to have more animal rights activists than those fighting for the right of children in rural areas to a better education. I don't mean to say that the former are unimportant; I simply want to emphasize the kind of disproportion and detachment from the most vital problems of our society.

Perhaps the "critical mass" which can change the performance of Polish politicians will also be constituted by certain factors that will emerge once Poland joins the EU. However, we're still talking about a qualitative change, which is one of the most mysterious subjects for analysis in social sciences. You can extract factors that favor such a change, but you still don't know how to obtain the desired values of these factors. Experience in other countries shows, for example, that it would certainly do no harm to improve the education level of the entire society. But how is it possible to do this in a country that struggles with a budget deficit? How to persuade politicians that they should put their own benefits at risk for the sake of social development?

If I knew the recipe for efficient implementation of this sort of recommendation, I would be making millions selling social engineering packages. Nevertheless, if we keep saying that nothing will work, it won't. But if we tell ourselves that something should and can be done then perhaps we'll make it.

We have talked about politicians and their role; how will Polish society as a whole change? In what way can it shake off this "ugly duckling complex" and find its place in the European family?
The question, in fact, concerns Poles' ability to undertake collective action. If one thinks of society not as a group of individuals, but as a certain way of functioning together, the crucial question is: have Poles attained such a level of "societalization" that they are able to act as a group and have something in common despite all the differences?

Surveys show that we manage fine as individuals, but perform worse as a society and a country. You could say that ties between Poles are much looser than those between citizens of Western countries, and even if we enter into closer relations with others, it usually doesn't work in favor of society as a whole. The dominant types are family ties, cliques, client-customer contacts-ones that rely on private relations between individuals. There are virtually no relations based on trust for someone with whom you interact on the public level, someone with whom you could reach an agreement, find a common interest subordinating your present individual interests to future greater benefits.

Today, the average Pole is convinced that it's possible to achieve much more by ignoring interests other than one's own. Knowing that most compatriots do just the same, the average Pole has no motivation whatsoever to do otherwise. This creates a kind of a "social trap," as even if we are aware that changing social habits would be beneficial to all, we adjust to those best known ways of acting as individuals, because in the short run it brings us relatively greater benefits, though it costs us much more in the long run.

For many years, Poles' behavior resulted from the necessity to survive in disadvantageous conditions imposed by external powers against the will of the majority. Today, we have reached a point in history where it seems that we should abandon that mode in favor of cooperation, following rules adopted by modern civilization...

All surveys and polls show that an overwhelming majority of Poles wants to do so and they strongly emphasize the will.

...but to want is one thing and to actually do something is completely different.
People are actually rational beings. They try to act in line with a rule which is more scientifically called "maximizing one's own utilities" or more simply-enlarging your own chances and profits in life. Still, this rationality is limited to common-sense knowledge. So, when in today's Poland the dominant element of such a knowledge is that you win only if you work on your own, or in an informal group, even the most ardent advocates of community rules have to break down at some point and resort to those proven ways of achieving one's goal, by taking shortcuts.

What can facilitate the process of Polish society's adaptation to European standards?
First and foremost, an extensive increase of spending on education. Education plays a dual role in today's world. It ensures greater competence and better flexibility and it changes the mentality of people, providing them with the possibility to see the world from a different perspective. People with an education below the secondary level find it hard to comprehend the complex processes of today's world, as they are unable to think in systematic terms, to capture relations between more abstract categories. Consequently, they cannot see how their own actions translate into general social effects.

The society of Poland has not yet exceeded a 50-percent threshold of people with at least secondary-level education. The percentage in Western societies is 70, 80 and even 90 percent. The point is not for everybody to get a college education, but to have a minimum cognitive competence enabling a qualitative change in one's perception of the world. Investing in education is thus the best way not only from the point of view of an individual or family, but from the state's point of view as well.

posted by: Oborski at 13:30 | link | comments |

There is “no possibility” that Warsaw will surrender to German pressure for a climb down on EU voting power, Poland’s president has said.

Poland resisted Berlin calls for a Warsaw white flag when Aleksander Kwasniewski met German premier Gerhard Schroeder for crunch talks on Thursday.

He warned Berlin that Poland is ready to veto an EU constitutional treaty which weakens Warsaw’s hand in an enlarged Europe.

"Cześć!"

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Interesting article from The New York Times...

Poland Takes Pride in Assertive Stance Toward Neighbors

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