Warsaw, June 20, 2001
During the Polish-Spanish conference: ”The Common Dimension of European Integration, Spain’s experiences, Implica-tions for Poland” President Aleksander Kwaśniewski said that Poland could draw from Spain’s experiences which were similar to those which Poland is having today. The President thanked Spain for its support for Poland up to now, saying that the two countries have much in common, and that Spain is an important partner for Poland. I believe that changes in agriculture in the light of EU membership are a great challenge for Poland, and that local Government should be highly involved in such changes. The Polish and Spanish participants in the debate stressed that solidarity is necessary within the EU. Poland’s Chief negotiator Jan Kułakowski believes that resignation from the principle of solidarity would result in a regress in the integration process. The policy of solidarity must be strengthened in the future Europe because of economic disproportions. Enrique Baron Crespo, Chairman of the parllamentary group of the Party of European Socialists stressed that structural changes are the most important in the adjustment process. He also drew attention to small outlays earmarked by EU for integration. Jorge Fuentes Monzonia-Villalonga, the Spanish Foreign Ministry commissioner for contacts with EU aspiring countries firmly supported EU enlargement.

Warsaw, June 21, 2001
Poland expects French political elite and opinion makers to be more involved in providing information about Poland as a country whose entry to the EU is a chance for Europe - Premier Jerzy Buzek said after a meeting with French Minister Delegate for European Affairs Pierre Moscovici. Poland’s entry to the EU will bring greater stability, greater strength to the continent and the possibility of rapid development and competition of the EU on a global scale. It is also a chance for greater influence of the EU in Eastern Europe. After a meeting with Polish EU negotiator Jan Kułakowski, Moscovici said that Poland joining the EU is a particularly important political aim for France. It is France’s intention to ratify the Nice treaty without re-negotiation and at the same time work out a proper position concerning the Irish.

Warsaw, June 25, 2001
The countries of East-Central Europe, while looking to the USA for security, will also be interested in an active participation in the EU’s own security policy, says an analytical report on Polish foreign policy in the European and Atlantic context prepared by the Stefan Batory Foundation. The authors of the report said that one of their aims was to question Poland’s stereotype as an American Trojan horse in the EU. Once admitted to the EU Poland will confront a host of problems that will be new to it and will tend to balance the ”pro-American bias”. Countries such as Poland are very much interested in a more transparent EU policy towards its eastern neighbors. The countries of East-Central Europe believe that the U.S. policy towards them is now more comprehensible and adequate, while the EU policy is seen as not fully shaped.

Brussels, June 26, 2001
During a conference organized in Brussels by the Royal Institute of International Relations Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek said that Poland wanted to join a forceful and confident European Union. In addition to fast and successful enlargement this is the second of our two priorities in relation to the EU. The European integration should be promoted among the citizens of the present and future EU member states. According to Buzek, EU enlargement plans receive support of 80-90 percent of political elites but only a half of this number among ordinary citizens.

Paris, July 4, 2001
France has assured Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski that it would like Poland to join the European Union as soon as possible. Bartoszewski, on a one-day working visit to Paris, stressed that for France the EU enlargement has not only a technical character, but also a political and historical one. Bartoszewski met with his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine and Minister for European Affairs Pierre Moscovici. The talks concerned bilateral and multilateral issues as well as Poland’s EU membership bid.

Kiev, July 9, 2001
(PAP) - Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski believes that Ukraine should take the advantage of international political climate, which is extremely favor-able for the country to step up integration with the west. On the second day of his visit to Ukraine, the Polish foreign minister pointed out to two historical, in his opinion, events which may help Ukraine change its image and get closer to the western world. He said that the perception of the country in the west would change owing to recent visits of Pope John Paul II and U.S. President George Bush. At the same time Bartoszewski assured Ukrainians that irrespective of the result of the September 23 parliamentary elections in Poland Warsaw's policy towards Kiev would not change.

Madrid, July 13, 2001
Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek is in Madrid for a two-days working visit during which he will discuss Poland’s integration with the European Union and Polish-Spanish eco-nomic relations. Buzek, who was received at an audience by Spanish King Juan Carlos, said Spain will take over the rota-ting six-month presidency of the European Union in January 2002 when Poland holds negotiations in the most contentious areas of agriculture, regional policy and finances. It is good to discuss the issues with Spaniards now, Buzek said.

Prague, July 23, 2001
Foreign ministers Władysław Bartoszewski and Jan Kavan and defense ministers Bronisław Komorowski and Jaroslav Tvrdik met at the regular ”2+2” meeting. They announced plans to create a joint Polish-Czech-Slovak military unit. An intergover-nmental agreement to this effect will be signed by September 20. Komorowski said the formation of the joint unit is to help Slovakia in its European Union member-ship bid. The ministers also discussed cooperation of the Polish and Czech arms industries and the purchase of multi-task aircraft for the two countries’ armies.

Szczecin, Aug. 14, 2001
Visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski discussed recent troubles around German war slavery compensation for Poles. Both presidents agreed that the German and Polish organizations responsible for the payments should resolve their misunderstandings among themselves. Schroeder underscored Germany’s support for Poland’s EU entry and said that his government wanted Poland to be in the first group of admitted countries. Both Schroeder and Kwaśniewski spoke out for NATO’s open-door policy in admitting new members; Kwaśniewski stressing that new countries could be admitted to the alliance already at next year’s NATO summit in Prague. After their meeting the two presidents inspected the Szczecin-based International North-East Military Corps which includes troops from Germany and Denmark and Poland. Gerhard Schroeder met also with Jerzy Buzek in the Szczecin-based European Integration Center, housing the Polish-German Economic House, with several dozen businessmen in attendance. They discussed cross-border commerce. Buzek also mentioned the Odra 2006 program recently passed by the Polish parliament, under which the Oder is to be upgraded into a commercial waterway. In his address Schroeder reiterated Germany’s wish to see Poland among the first EU admissions. Germany is full of respect for Poland’s economic achievements, particularly as the work was done without outside help, he said. Stressing that Poland’s prompt EU membership lay not only in Europe’s and Poland’s own interest but also in our own, Schroeder reminded that Germany’s trade with the EU candidates equaled its turnover with the U.S., he also said that Poland will join the EU not as a petitioner but a country that has a lot to offer.

Kiev, Aug. 23, 2001
Presidents Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Vladimir Putin were guests of their Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma at ceremonies marking the 10^th anniversary of regaining independence by his country. The presidents took part in the unveiling of the Independence Monument. According to Kwasniewski, the presence in Kiev of a president of one of the NATO countries means that the European trend to link Ukraine to a number of structures in Europe is present. President Kwaśniewski said he was expecting President Vladimir Putin to fix the date of his visit to Poland soon to activate the Polish-Russian dialogue. Kwaśniewski’s talks with Putin will also focus on the Russian district of Kaliningrad and Belarus.

Warsaw, Aug. 28, 2001
During the conference titled: “Ukraine - Ten Years of Independence” Sejm speaker Maciej Płażynski said that the balance sheet of the past ten years of Ukraine’s independence is unequivocally positive, although it still does not meet the expectations of the Poles and Ukrainians. The event was attended by former prime ministers of Poland and Ukraine, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Victor Yushchenko and Ukrainie’s Supreme Council leader Chairman Ivan Plushch. According to former Poland’s Ambassador to Russia, presidential adviser Stanisław Ciosek, Ukraine’s independence is an irreversible process. Political architecture of security in Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union is durable and inviolable, and Ukraine’s independence is a fact. In Yushchenko’s view Ukraine’s political life needs fresh blood. The ex-prime minister, leader of the ”New Ukraine” grouping claims that Ukrainians should ask themselves whether that country may play the role of a full-fledge partner in Europe. Ukrainian Ambassador in Warsaw Dmytro Palychko said he hoped that never ”a silk curtain” would be hung on the Polish-Ukraine border.

Poznań, Aug. 28, 2001
Polish Jesuit Adam Sztark has been awarded the ”Righteous Among the Nations of the World” medal granted him posthumously by the Israeli Yad Vashem Institute. The distinction was handed over to Father Sztark’s sister in a ceremony held in the seat of the Jewish Congre-gation. Sztark saved Jewish children during the liquidation of Jews from a ghetto in Slonim, Polesie region, in 1942. He hid them in his presbytery and the nearby monastery. In December, 1942 he was executed by Germans for helping Jews. Father Sztark is the first Polish Jesuit and one of the over 5,000 Poles so far awarded the Yad Vashems.

Jagniatkowo, Sept. 2, 2001
Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and Germany’s Saxony Minister-President Kurt Biedenkopf attended a ceremony marking the 62nd anniversary of the outbreak of World War II and opened a museum of 1912 literature Nobel prize winner Gerhart Hauptmann in Jagniatkowo, near the south-western Polish town of Jelenia Gora. Buzek expressed the hope that Poles and Germans will be able to draw conclusions from the past, build a common future and develop cooperation. Buzek added that Hauptmann wrote that he had found his homeland in Jagniatkowo while Biedenkopf spoke about a common future of all Europeans.