POLISH NEWS BULLETIN
February 2005
Warsaw, Feb. 2: In a phone call to the Vatican PM Marek Belka asked the Pope's personal secretary to pass to John Paul II his wishes of speedy recovery. Belka asked Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz to convey to the Holy Father "words of our concern and speedy recovery wishes from all his fellow countrymen," the PM said. Belka concerned at the news about the Pope's illness also made a phone-call Father Pawel Ptasznik, head of the Polish Section of the Holy See Secretariate of State to ask about the Pope's health.
Warsaw, Feb. 2: Over 130 persons who suffered during the terrorist attack on a school in Beslan, North Osetia last year met with PM Marek Belka. The group of 65 children aged between 7 months and 16 years, accompanied by family members and teachers came to Warsaw at the invitation of Mayor Lech Kaczynski. The PM received the guests at his chancellery expressing the hope that they will keep the holidays in Poland in best memories. He also handed over gifts to the visitors. Pawel Wypych of the Warsaw City Office said his office had got in touch with the Russian authorities and Poles in Beslan soon after the attack and decided to invite children to Poland already last autumn but many children were still in hospital at that time. The guests from Beslan will stay in Poland till end of February.
Vilnius, Feb. 2: Development of democracy in countries east of Poland and Lithuania is one of the main tasks of Poland's and Lithuania's foreign policies, said both countries Foreign Ministers Adam Daniel Rotfeld and Antanas Valionis in Vilnius. Poland and Lithuania will be safer and more prosperous if they are surrounded by democratic countries, Valionis told. He added that talks with his Polish counterpart focused on joint, concrete assistance to Ukraine, the need for improving administration in that country and sharing experience in law-making as well as in membership of the EU. Minister Rotfeld underlined the need for a constructive and close cooperation with Russia. Minister Valionis assured Rotfeld that Lithuania is ready for solving problems of Poles living in that country but warned it may take time. For example the process of land return is very complex and will surely take longer time to be solved. We discussed very concrete steps to solve problems and we will present both countries' PMs with possible solutions during a meeting of the Polish-Lithuanian cooperation Council scheduled for May, he explained. Rotfeld said that after Poland and Lithuania joined the EU their mutual relations should be re-evaluated. At present the two countries should deal, above all, with outlining a common foreign and security policy of the EU. He added that "problems of Polish minority living in Lithuania will remain important in bilateral relations."
Brussels, Feb. 2: The European Commission has stated that Poland is rather unlikely to meet by 2007 the EU criteria that will let it join the euro zone in 2009. The EC criticised the Polish government for the incomplete implementation of the Hausner plan and for failing to secure long-term balance of public finances. The EC believes that in the light of risk assessment the budget entry included in the programme and providing for cutting the budget deficit to below 3 percent of GDP in 2007 seems insufficient and additional funds may be needed, apart from the Hausner plan. The EC said it planned to recommend that Poland should introduce additional means strengthening the discipline of public finances. In a draft recommendations the EC suggests that Poland should cut the planned budget deficit for 2007, fully implement the Hausner plan, quickly adjust public funds to EU directives and introduce additional means enhancing the plan of actions aimed at Poland's integration with the euro zone.
Warsaw, Feb. 2: The European Commission's New Lisbon Strategy mentions many issues that are important for Poland, however we disagree with its treatment of certain matters, Polish European minister Jarolaw Pietras said commenting EC report on the EU's 2000-adopted Lisbon Strategy. According to the 2000 document the EU was to advance to the world's most competitive economy by 2010. In its report the Commission criticised the Strategy's to-date implementation and advised to give it "a new start". According to the EC main Lisbon Strategy goals should be raising employment and securing economic growth. Pietras said that the new Strategy contained "a multitude of tasks and goals" but admitted that "certain details gave cause for concern". Among the latter he especially named rulings on the service market, labour laws, labour flow and structural funding. This report does not yet signal any major changes in the Lisbon Strategy. At this stage it is only an attempt to seek directions by countries that differ in their internal policies and the methods they use to boost their economies, Pietras said. According to the minister the most difficult Lisbon Strategy tasks for Poland will be raising R&D funding and employment.
Warsaw, Feb.2: There are almost 100 mistakes in the Polish-language version of the European Constitutional Treaty, according to deputy foreign minister Jan Truszczynski. He said the cabinet would ask for their correction. The Treaty is in the custody of the Italian government. The minister also said that a broad ranging information campaign on the content of the Treaty was necessary in Poland. A series of public conferences on the Treaty will be held in cooperation with European law departments of Polish universities, he said. Truszczynski said that the final shape of the Treaty put Poland "among the most important EU countries."
Warsaw, Feb.2: The numerical reduction in the Polish military contingent stationed in Iraq was preplanned last year and has no relation to the recent elections there, according to colonel Piotr Pertek, head of the information service of the defense ministry. He was reacting to a recent statement from the Danish foreign minister Per Stig Moeller who criticised announcements of the reduction. Pertek emphasized that the reduction had been announced by PM Marek Belka in his Sejm expose last year. "Our mission in Iraq will evolve towards training and equipping the Iraqis," Pertek added. Commenting on the charges that Polish troops stayed in their bases on election day in Iraq, Pertek said that "it would amount to absurdity if foreign troops held supervision over the election. We have trained a few thousand Iraqi policemen and soldiers and can rest assured of the fate of democracy in the area of our responsibility," Pertek said. The Polish contingent in Iraq was 2,500 strong until recently. Now it has been reduced to 1,700 men (additional 700 troops stay in Poland but are ready to go to Iraq at short notice).
Bielsko-Biala, Feb. 2: About 18 thousand young Jews and Poles will take part in the March of the Living in Auschwitz, Oswiecim, on May 5. This year's 14th march will be the biggest so far, PAP learnt at the Education and Sports Ministry which coordinates preparations. Education ministers from EU countries who are to meet in Cracow on May 4 will also take part in the march, and probably also Presidents Moshe Katsav of Israel and Aleksander Kwasniewski. The Polish group will number about 2.5 thousand of people of various denominations. The March of the Living will be held on Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom Ha-Shoah) falling on May 5 this year. The participants will march along the so called Death Route from the former Auschwitz camp to Birkenau three kilometres away, to pay tribute to the Holocaust victims and pass a peace message to the living. Prior to the march commemorations will be held at Warsaw Ghetto Heroes Memorial in Warsaw and at Kazimierz, the former Jewish district in Cracow. Marches of the Living have been organised since 1988 by the Israeli Education Ministry and the March of the Living organisation.
Warsaw, Feb. 2: Poland's economy may grow by less than 4.0 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Finance Minister Miroslaw Gronicki. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with investors from the American Chamber of Commerce, Gronicki said that in the first quarter of 2005 the GDP growth would be slightly bigger than in the 4th quarter of 2004. We will find ourselves at a turning point in the 1st quarter. We will have a rising growth this year and this has been what we have based the budget on, Gronicki said and added the growth would be around 5.0 percent. Gronicki told Bloomberg that the GDP growth in the 1st quarter would be lower than 4.1 percent. The Central Statistical Office (GUS) published its initial estimates according to which in 2004 the GDP went up by 5.4 percent. The data concerning the 4th quarter of 2004 will be published in March. According to economists, in order to achieve a 5-percent GDP growth it is necessary to have a double-digit growth of investments.
Katowice, Feb. 2: 2005 will be a breakthrough year for a planned rail freighting connection from China to Russia and Poland's Euroterminal in Slawkowo, Russian and Polish deputy transport ministers Alexander Misharin and Jan Kurylczyk agreed after talks in Slawkowo and Katowice. The (...) Russian side is very keen on this project, although it still needs to be discussed. I'll do what I can to bring the first train from the Far East to Slawkowo still this year, Kurylczyk told. Misharin agreed that Russia was interested in the project, which in his opinion was especially promising owing to the "steadily growing trade between Asia and Europe".
Warsaw, Feb.2: The German federal government will give financial support to selected investment projects in Poland designed to protect the environment. An agreement to this effect was signed by the Polish minister for environment Jerzy Swaton and the German ambassador to Warsaw Reinhard Schweppe. The agreement will make it possible for Polish local governments, NGOs and companies to seek subsidies and loans from the German federal budget to finance ecological projects. The agreement does not specify the amount of funds to be made available, saying only that the German government will help Poland "depending on the possibilities of the federal budget." Minister Jerzy Swaton hopes that the agreement will result in German financing for the completion of the construction of a waste treatment plant in Gubin and Swinoujscie. "The agreement will facilitate obtaining funding from EU sources, among other things for cross-border projects under Interreg programme," ambassador Reinhard Schweppe told. "These joint projects lay on the table, now it will be possible to implement them," he added.
Warsaw, Feb. 2: The ministers of culture of Poland, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia signed a declaration on setting up a "Memory and Solidarity" European network. Plans provide for cooperation of international institutions in preparing documents concerning forced migrations and resettlements. The declaration will be the beginning of concrete work on a very sensible project which will create a plane of communication between nations, Culture Minister Waldemar Dabrowski said. Dabrowski stressed that the network will help build a European spirit of reconciliation. Speaking about the recent 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp, Dabrowski stressed that this hell was created by a man for another man. It is a moral obligation to remember and not let this happen ever again, he added.
Warsaw, Feb. 2: No country has gained so much from the integration with the EU as Poland. The first six months after the accession will be followed by long-term investments in services which will create thousands of new jobs, writes Rzeczpospolita daily. According to the paper commentator Danuta Walewska "old" EU countries are surprised by the enlargement results. They had counted on gaining new markets whereas what happened was that Polish exports to the west have been growing at a fast pace and the "old" Europe has started to transform under the influence of the new states, indicates a report of the U.S. Merrill Lynch investment bank, quoted by the daily. According to the paper, Merril Lynch proves that those western companies that have decided to invest in Polish services, food and beverage production have reported bigger gains that their rivals, who feared the risk of investing the capital in the new EU countries. Investments in services in Poland will be a logical consequence of this strategy.
Warsaw, Feb. 2: According to 61 percent of respondents to a CBOS January poll the Sejm special enquiry committee for PKN Orlen will not find the truth concerning the irregularities in Poland's biggest fuel company. 24 percent of those polled voiced the opposite opinion. In relation to a similar poll run in December 2004 the number of sceptical respondents fell by 7 percentage points from 68 percent. The number of optimists rose by 8 percentage points. Like in December in Janaury 6 percent of respondents did not hear about the committee and 9 percent had no opinion on the matter. In January 54 percent of those surveyed were not interest in the work of the Sejm committee, up 5 percentage points on December figure. The poll was run on Janaury 7-10, 2005 on a representative sample of 1,089 adult Poles.
Warsaw, Feb. 2: Sixty percent of Poles are satisfied over Poland's EU membership with 9 percent having a negative view about Poland's EU membership, according to a January poll conducted by TNS OBOB. According to the results of the poll, 26 percent neither approved nor opposed Poland's EU membership. In a December poll 56 percent of Poles said they had a positive view of Poland's EU membership and 12 percent had a negative view about Poland's EU entry. Eighty seven percent of those polled said that most prices of everyday articles rose (down by 6 percentage points from December), with 10 percent believing that the prices did not change (up 5 percentage points). Seventy seven percent said that Poland's EU entry did not affect their life (nearly unchanged). For 12 percent their life changed for the worse after Poland's EU accession (down by 2 percentage points), and 9 percent said that their life changed for the better (8 percent in December). Thirteen percent said that situation in Poland changed for the worse after EU entry (down from 15 percent), 35 percent said it changed for the better (up from 31 percent) and 44 percent thought the situation was unchanged. The survey was carried out on a sample of 1,005 adult Poles on January 6-10.
Warsaw, Feb. 3: Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania Kastriot Islami will pay a working visit to Poland on February 7 to review bilateral relations and exchange opinions on international affairs with his counterpart Adam Rotfeld. The talks are to centre on security and cooperation in the region, European and Euro-Atlantic issues and Albania's aspirations to gain EU membership as well as global threat posed by terrorism. The guest will be received by PM Marek Belka and will pay visits to the Sejm and the Senate.
Szczecin, Feb. 3: With no new U.N. Security Council resolution on the stabilisation mission in Iraq Polish soldiers will come back home at the end of December, Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski told. He did not rule out the possibility that Polish troops may return even earlier as the Iraqi government may anytime decide that their presence is not necessary. Szmajdzinski recalled that stabilisation forces have stayed in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government. Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer said the number of foreign troops would decrease by the end of the year but added that it was still too early for their total withdrawal despite the success of general elections. By the end of February the Polish contingent in Iraq will be smaller with the number of soldier falling down from the present 2,500 to 1,700, the minister recalled.
Szczecin, Feb. 3: Possibilities of expanding the Multinational North-East Corps to include representatives of six more countries were discussed by Defence Ministers of Poland Jerzy Szmajdzinski and Germany Peter Struck and Danish undersecretary of state for international cooperation Kristian Fischer. Minister Szmajdzinski told that discussed was the participation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the U.S. Szmajdzinski added he was authorised by his partners to inform public opinion that the countries that set up the corps, namely Poland, Germany and Denmark, "agreed to notify NATO of the readiness as to the use of the corps command in the mission in Afghanistan." According to the ministers, this could take place in 2007.
Warsaw, Feb. 3: Deputy PM Jerzy Hausner called on the Monetary Policy Council (RPP) to modify its policy so as to counter zloty appreciation that may have a negative impact on Poland's economic growth. The euro hit its over two year low at below 4 zlotys. Hausner said that the RPP should modify its zloty-firming policy in order to counter further appreciation of the Polish currency. Hausner identified the present policy as a threat for Poland's economic growth, negatively affecting export. The government is due to meet the RPP for talks on exchange rates on Monday.
Warsaw, Feb. 3: "A solidarity gesture with Aleksander Kwasniewski", "the sorrowful cries of disenchanted supporters of the Thick Line policy" and "a ridiculous example of the Freedom Union's frustrations" was how the leaders of Poland's opposition parties Citizens Platform (PO), Law and Justice (PiS) and League of Polish Families (LPR) described Cracow Declaration against rightwing radicalism published in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. The declaration, signed by over 50 Cracow artists and intellectuals including Nobel poet Wislawa Szymborska, warns against the emergence of "dangerous radicalism" on Poland's right. "Today's political standards are increasingly set by the League of Polish Families, with not only PiS but also, unfortunately, PO following suit. Through this sharp right turn PO has ceased to be a party of the political centre, of liberalism, tolerance and political moderation", the document reads. This is a solidarity gesture with Aleksander Kwasniewski, said PO leader Jan Rokita said, stressing that he disagreed with the president's recent claims that PO was a "threat to Poland". According to Rokita the declaration "showed that the conflict in Poland was between those who believe Polish politics had run aground and needed refloating and those who claim everything is great". We are on the side of those who say matters in the country are so bad that it will take nothing short of drastic measures to sanify public life, Rokita said. PiS caucus head Ludwig Dorn said he read the Declaration "with astonishment going over into amusement". According to Dorn the document's signatories were "a group of people who have built around themselves an artificial world, and artificial Poland", their declaration containing "the sorrowful cries of the orphans of Tadeusz Mazowiecki's "thick line" policy". LPR leader Roman Giertych called the declaration "a ridiculous example of the Freedom Union's frustrations". These people were considered an authority once but have lost thios status long ago. It's really amusing to see people who've lost the elections trying to instruct those who won them and have a chance to win again, Giertych stated.
Brussels, Feb. 3: EIB Vice-President Wolfgang Roth believes the bank investments in Poland will likely go up mainly due to EIB's involvement in financing the construction of A1 and A2 motorways, the matter that is currently being negotiated. According to Roth EIB is also ready to invest in the Odessa-Brody pipeline that is to deliver Caspian crude oil to Europe via Poland. In 2005 EIB plans to lend 45 billion euros in loans against 43 billion euros it lent in 2004, of which 92 percent went to 25 EU countries. Last December the government reported that Poland would get from EIB 150 million euros in credits for improving road safety. This would be the first loan out of 500 million euros approved by the EIB for the purpose. Last October EIB said it would lend Poland 760 million euros on the grounds of agreements that had been signed or agreed upon. Then Roth announced that the bank may assign up to 1 billion euros for motorway construction in Poland. Since 1990 EIB has invested in Poland more than 8.9 billion euros.
Katowice, Feb. 3: Swedish Vattenfall plans to raise its share in the Polish market of energy and heat generating and distribution to 15 percent from the present 6-7 percent, Vattenfall Poland director for communication Piotr Kedzierski said. "The plan realisation deadline will depend on the pace of privatisation of the energy and heat sector in Poland. We will consider participation in every tender announced by the treasury, he said. According to Kedzierski the concern has placed an offer to buy a majority bloc of shares at Elektrocieplownia Zabrze power and hear generating plant. He denied reports about Vattenfall being interested in taking over a hard coal pit in Silesia saying in Poland the concern wanted to concentrate of generating energy and heat. According to Kedzierski, so far Vattenfall has invested in Poland some 1 billion euros in the majority bloc of shares in Gornoslaski Zaklad Elektroenergetyczny (GZE) in Gliwice and Elektrocieplownie Warszawskie (Warsaw power and heat generating compound). The concern companies in Poland employ some 3.3 thousand people.
Warsaw, Feb. 3: The book "Zydzi polscy w KL Auschwitz. Wykazy imienne" (Polish Jews in KL Auschwitz. Name Index) containing 17,949 names of Polish Jews murdered by Germans at the Auschwitz
death camp was shown to newsmen. The names identified by researchers constitute only a part of those murdered. An overwhelming majority of Polish Jews, victims of Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp died anonymously. The number of all Polish Jews who perished in Auschwitz is estimated at 300-380 thousand. A majority of Polish Jews were murdered in the centres of immediate extermination at Chelmno on the Ner, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and in mass executions. About 150 thousand died of hunger or in result of epidemic in ghettos. An overwhelming majority of Jews murdered in Auschwitz was sent to gas chambers immediately upon arrival. All in all, over a million
European Jews were killed in Auschwitz. The book was prepared by Stanislaw Maczka and Magdalena Prokopowicz and published by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
Lodz, Feb. 3: A group of 50 distinguished Poles led by Lodz President Jerzy Kropiwnicki will leave for Israel with a mission to establish economic contacts and foster cultural cooperation between Lodz and Israeli cities. "Its high time for the relations between Lodz and Tel-Aviv to be moved to business level from the cultural and social ones," Jerzy Kropiwnicki told. More than 20 Lodz businessmen representing different sectors declared their willingness to go and to participate in business meetings that have been organised for them e.g. in Jerusalem. Also Lodz theatres directors will go to Israel.
Warsaw, Feb. 3: Education can secure Poland a strong position in Europe and is therefore a priority for the Social-democracy of Poland (SdPl), SdPl leader Marek Borowski said in Warsaw's Batory Foundation. Borowski, in the Foundation to lecture on methods to mend the country, said education was the key to Poland's growth and suggested changes in the present schooling system, including lowering the official school age to 5. Borowski also spoke out for cutting down theory in school programmes and introducing more practical and skill-oriented instruction. He also announced plans for an Anti-Corruption Agency to monitor large financial operations whose officials could instruct on corruption in schools. Borowski also stressed the importance of sex equality and supported liberal abortion laws.
Warsaw, Feb. 6: In a congratulatory message to Yulia Tymoshenko PM Marek Belka assured the newly appointed Ukrainian PM that Poland will continue to support Ukraine's pro-western aspirations, especially that country's cooperation with the EU and NATO as well as international economic structures. "The presence of a strong, democratic Ukraine connected with European and Euro-Atlantic structures will constitute a key element of international stabilisation on the continent, consolidating the European order and setting other countries of the region an example to follow," the PM wrote. Belka also expressed the hope to meet Tymoshenko shortly. In his opinion the meeting would provide an opportunity to discuss current problems of bilateral and multilateral relations, especially in the context of Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. The PM assured that the Polish government is ready to cooperate with the Ukrainian government and expressed the conviction that Polish-Ukrainian relations will develop favourably and dynamically under Tymoshenko's government.
Warsaw, Feb. 4: Polish-Spanish government consultations to be chaired by PM Marek Belka and Jose Luis Zapatero will be held in Warsaw on February 9. The consultations are to focus on bilateral political and economic relations, EU related issues and EU's relations with its eastern neighbours.
Warsaw, Feb. 4: The EU's 7th Framework Programme should play an important role in the implementation of the Lisbon strategy objectives that are designed to make the European economy the most competitive in the world, EU commissioner for research and development Janez Potocnik said. "Two days ago the European Commission adopted a new perspective of the Lisbon strategy," Potocnik recalled. "We still want to promote a competitive economy, protect environment, to function according to high standards. But we have to be aware that we are not coping very well on this road." In order to change this, the EU has to raise anew the question of using knowledge and innovation to boost economic growth. The EU's 7th Framework Programme, which is to start in 2006, will play an important role here. The budget of the programme will be 30 billion euros. "In my opinion the 7th Framework Programme is a very significant element here. The programme should play a leading role in the implementation of objectives of the Lisbon strategy," Potocnik said. The EU's budget for research and development is the third biggest EU budget (after farming and coherence budgets), science and computerisation minister Michal Kleiber said. ""It is a problem of the whole Europe, and of individual countries, how to use it properly," he stressed.
Warsaw, Feb. 4: Leaders of 46 member countries of the Council of Europe are to take part in the Summit of Heads of State and Government on 16 and 17 May 2005 in Warsaw, at the invitation of the Polish government. Organizers expect several thousand guests, including two thousand journalists. Ambassador Jerzy Pomianowski, responsible for preparations on behalf of the foreign minister, said that the May summit, to define the Council of Europe's place in the European institutional landscape and to provide the Organisation with a clear political mandate for the coming years, will be a exceptional event. The summit will be held at the Warsaw Royal Castle to be specially prepared for the event. The summit will be accompanied by various cultural events, including a "European Night" on May 14 - a string of concerts, exhibitions, open air events as well as scientific seminars and an European Youth Summit. Organizers do not expect any organized protests, similar to those which have taken place during last year's April European Economic Forum when the city's centre was practically closed to general public and exclude such blockade this year. The Council of Europe was founded in 1949. Apart from Belarus all European countries are members of the council. Up to now, only two such summits were staged, in 1993 and 1997.
Divanija, Feb. 6: General Waldemar Skrzypczak who takes over the Multinational Centre-South Division in Iraq told his objective was to grant the biggest possible assistance to the best possible training of Iraqi security forces. A day before taking over the command the general said this would help ensure security to the new authorities and civilians. According to Skrzypczak, the post-election period may be ever harder for the coalition than the period before elections. That is why the stabilisation mission had to turn to a training mission. The new authorities have to have arguments in countering terrorism, he explained. Skrzypczak replaces General Andrzej Ekiert.
Lublin, Feb. 4: We should strive to make our eastern border a growth-inspiring area, especially the stretch with Ukraine, deputy PM Jerzy Hausner said after a conference on Poland's National Development Plan in Lublin, southeast Poland. Among others Hausner stressed Lublin's role in developing ties with the east and supported suggestions to grant the city metropolitan status. Lublin should be a pivot point for the EU's and Poland's eastern policy. This is why I think Lublin should become a metropolitan area, Hausner told. Hausner also backed plans to found a Polish-Ukrainian university in Lublin.
Gdansk, Feb. 6: Leaders of the Union of the Left (UL) want to meet with President Aleksander Kwasniewski before his departure to the USA to ask him to convey to President George W. Bush a letter with UL's postulates concerning the war in Iraq. UL leader, Deputy PM Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka said that the postulates also concern "questions important for Poland" but did not disclose the details. The UL is of the opinion that Polish soldiers should withdraw from the Iraqi conflict as soon as possible. President who is staying in Switzerland at present is to pay a working visit to the USA between February 8 and 10. The Union of the Left is a political grouping affiliating the Union of Labour, the Polish Socialist Party PPS and several other smaller, left-oriented parties.
Warsaw, Feb. 4: According to President of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) Leszek Balcerowicz, the zloty appreciation does not have to be a lasting trend. Balcerowicz told that we had been witnessing the zloty appreciation trend for several months now. The currency market focuses mainly on short-term analyses. And such short-term assessments may change. It is widely known that no trend lasts forever, he added. The zloty was fluctuating considerably in the past and structural problems of public finances, which were a significant source of these fluctuations, did not disappear. So it would be too risky to take it for granted that the appreciation of the zloty would be a lasting trend, he said.
40 pct against privatisation
Warsaw, Feb. 4: Forty percent of Poles in a CBOS poll said privatisation was harmful for Poland's economy, 25 percent claimed it was economically positive. 46 percent claimed privatisation was unfavourable for them personally, only 16 percent believing it helped their personal situation. 44 percent said most privatisation profits went to crooks and wheeler-dealers, 71 percent claimed most Poles lost out on privatisation. Most privatisation supporters were young, educated urban dwellers, privatisation opponents mainly came from older, poorly educated and low-income groups.
Warsaw, Feb. 4: Sixty percent of Poles believe that the year 2004 was rather good for them personally. 33 percent voiced the opposite opinion and 2 percent had no opinion at all, a recent TNS OBOP poll has found. Fifty percent said the year 2004 was bad for Poland, 40 percent said it was good and 10 percent did not have any opinion. Asked about the most negative events of 2004, 45 percent named corruption, bribery and financial scams, 14 percent spoke about demoralization of politicians, 12 percent pointed out to unemployment growth, 14 percent signalled poverty, and 11 percent - Poland's involvement in Iraq. For 53 percent Poland's integration with the EU was the most favourable event of 2004. Only 18 percent of Poles evaluated the year 2004 as rather good for the entire world and 71 percent described it as rather bad or bad. TNS OBOP ran the poll on January 6-10 on a representative sample of 1,005 adult Poles.
Cimoszewicz holds talks in Zagreb
Zagreb, Feb. 8: Sejm Speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz staying in Zagreb on Tuesday suggested Croatia full cooperation with the U.N. Hague Tribunal. Such cooperation is a condition for starting by Croatia membership negations with the EU on March 17. Cimoszewicz met with Speaker of Croatian Parliament Vladimir Seks and President Stjepan Mesic. "Croatia must do away with any kind of doubts as to EU's very serious approach towards conditions of good cooperation with the Hague Tribunal," Cimoszewicz said. Seks said he trusts that Croatia will meet this condition, and if not "we will have to convince our partners in the EU that we have done our best to meet it but unfortunately we failed." During the talks Cimoszewicz upheld Poland's traditional support for Croatia's EU aspirations. Recalling Poland's positive experiences with EU membership Cimoszewicz was encouraging Croatia to do everything possible to become a EU member as quickly as possible.
Szmajdzinski meets U.S. defence secretary
Warsaw, Feb. 9: Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski met with U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Washington on Tuesday evening, the Defence Ministry reported. Szmajdzinski and Rumsfeld discussed the situation in Iraq after January's elections. They praised the significance of the Polish- run Multi-national Centre-south division for stabilisation in Iraq. Discussed was also Polish-U.S. military cooperation. The two stressed the necessity to further develop this cooperation, with particular emphasis on moves designed to accelerate the transformation of the Polish armed forces and improve its combat abilities.
Szmajdzinski is in the U.S. with President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
Zemke: Poland's contingent to train Iraqi servicemen
Warsaw, Feb. 8: The fourth shift of the Polish military contingent in Iraq will concentrate on training Iraqi policemen and soldiers also for servicing Polish choppers that will be sold to Iraq, deputy Defence Minister Janusz Zemke said . Apart from keeping law and order we will devote more attention to police and guards training. Equipment and arms will be conveyed to the Iraqi National Guard and training centres will open, including the one in Al-Kut where we will train Iraqi pilots and ground servicemen for servicing Sokol choppers, Zemke said and recalled that 20 new choppers will be sent to Iraq as part of a contract reached with Bumar with the deliveries starting this December. Former commander of the Multinational South-East Division General Andrzej Ekiert said upon return from Iraq on Monday late night that both the Iraq elections and their turnout were a success. He expressed the conviction that a new Iraqi government will be formed and approved by the nation. According to Ekiert the most important for Iraq now is to write a new constitution. The first three shifts of the Polish military contingent in Iraq numbered some 3.5 thousand each. The fourth one numbers 1,700 soldiers with 700 deployed in Poland as a reserve. Soon 800 soldiers of the third shift will come back home as the rotation was halted for the time of elections. The last plane with Polish soldiers will come to Poland on February 19.
Polish-Spanish intergovernmental consultations start
Warsaw, Feb. 9: Prime Minister Marek Belka officially welcomed his Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday morning. Later the two sides started intergovernmental consultations to discuss a new EU budget, Polish-Spanish cooperation on the international arena and chances for opening the Spanish labour market for Poles. Planned is also a face-to-face meeting of the two prime ministers. The Spanish PM is accompanied by the ministers of labour, agriculture, infrastructure, industry and trade as well as secretaries of state at justice, foreign affairs, defence and education ministries.
Hausner does not contemplate resigning
Warsaw, Feb.8: Deputy PM Jerzy Hausner cut short speculations about his government future Tuesday when he said he did not contemplate resigning from the cabinet. "I do not think about resigning," Hausner told newsmen. On Monday Hausner declared he had given up his membership of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), the main party supporting the cabinet. This led to demands from some SLD leaders that he resign from his cabinet post.
Potocki on building new political grouping with Hausner
Warsaw, Feb. 9: Jerzy Hausner can participate in the construction of a new political grouping with the Freedom Union (UW) only when he has resigned from the Marek Belka government, UW general secretary Andrzej Potocki said ."If UW decides to form a common election list together with Janusz Steinhoff's party, with Jerzy Hausner and other groupings, Mr. Hausner should not be a cabinet member at that time," Potocki told Radio Three. On Tuesday UW leader Wladyslaw Frasyniuk said he was in talks with Hausner on building a new democratic-liberal centre. On Wednesday he told the Rzeczpospolita daily that he himself, Hausner, Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Steinhoff would soon announce a joint political declaration. Asked to comment these statements Potocki said that all these people were linked by a vision of Polish politics which was not reflecting the current political divisions. "This is a vision placed in the centre understood as a separate force and not as a point where the right and left meet", Potocki stressed.
IPN will hire new staffers to cope with client applications
Warsaw, Feb.8: Head of the National Remembrance Institute (IPN) Leon Kieres will use the 2 million zlotys (ca. 650,000 USD) subsidy granted IPN by the cabinet Tuesday to hire 40 more staffers to process client applications. This year's budget of the Institute is 93 million zlotys.
Kieres asked for financial help after IPN had been inundated with applications from people whose names had been published on the internet as featuring in IPN index. The publication, made only days after Rzeczpospolita journalist Bronislaw Wildstein revealed he had circulated the index among his friends, provoked an avalanche of applications for access to the files kept by IPN. 351 applications came in in Warsaw alone last Friday, and over 500 more came in outside Warsaw. 300 more applications were filed in Warsaw Monday. The number of weekly applications was around a dozen as recently as in December. During four years between February 2001 and January 2005 IPN received 17,400 applications for access to its personal files. Applicants whose names are on the published list are anxious to clear their reputation put into doubt by the fact that the index contains names of communist era secret police officers and informers as well as victims. The list comprises 164,000 names together with file codes that enable easy access to the files.
Pawlak: PSL for early elections, referendum on EU treaty in 2006
Lublin, Feb. 8: Leader of the Polish Peasant Party (PSL) Waldemar Pawlak believes that parliamentary and presidential elections should be held on the same day this year while elections to the local government and a referendum on the EU Constitutional Treaty should be held next year. He told a news conference in Lublin, eastern Poland, on Tuesday that time was needed to discuss the EU Constitutional Treaty. The PSL is for holding early elections and will vote accordingly in May, he said. He believes that parliamentary elections should be held together with presidential ones to save money. Pawlak said he may run for president. The PSL politician was very shortly Poland's PM at the beginning of the 1990's when his predecessor Jan Olszewski had to resign after a government crisis over secret services' files, part of which have been recently secreted out of the National Remembrance Institute IPN by Bronislaw Wildstein.
Privatisation adviser for PZU soon - minister
Warsaw, Feb.8: A privatisation adviser for PZU insurer can be selected in the coming few weeks, possibly still this month, treasury minister Jacek Socha said. However, he warned that "there is a chance that an adviser will not be necessary at all. Arbitration (between PZU shareholder Eureko and the state treasury) is not conducive to privatisation. I am waiting for Sejm decisions due next week," Socha said. Next week the Sejm can decide if the treasury should enter into an agreement with Eureko.
Small and medium firms adapted to post-accession conditions
Warsaw, Feb. 8: Small- and medium-sized firms adapted to new conditions after Poland's EU entry and show considerable flexibility in the new environment, according to the Office for the European Integration Committee (UKiE). The UKiE-commissioned survey was carried out by Pentor in December. Representatives of small and medium firms were asked about benefits and costs of Poland's EU membership and most of them said that "the world has not collapsed but it is too early for a diagnosis as yet." They praised new regulations concerning trade with EU countries, stressing that bureaucracy was considerably curbed, and border traffic streamlined. They held a good opinion about environment protection and waste management regulations, despite new costs and obligations. But the quality of Polish legislation continues to be criticised, in particular the VAT law. The pessimistic forecasts about the Polish market facing domination by big western concerns after 1 May 2004 did not materialise. Those surveyed said that Poland's EU entry increased its exports to the EU countries (mainly foodstuffs and services), but decreased exports to the Community of Independent States. Banks were criticised as client-unfriendly and offering expensive services.
Polish regional airports qualify for public assistance
Brussels, Feb.8: Polish regional airports will qualify for public assistance of up to 50 pc of development costs of new local connections under the new EU rules of granting such assistance presented here Tuesday. The EU began consultations with member states Tuesday on the proposed new rules applicable to small regional airports. Final decisions are expected next summer. "The aim of our initiative is to promote the development of regional airports that will offer additional choice to passengers," according to Stefaan de Rynk, spokesman for commissioner Jacques Barrot responsible for transport. The EU Commission began consultations on public assistance for regional airports one year after its decision on the highly publicized case of the Charleroi airport in Belgium. De Rynk said the Commission awaited more explanations in the case and would monitor the execution of its decision.
Sejm cttee: EU membership profitable
Warsaw, Feb. 10: The first phase of Poland's EU membership confirmed that Poland is an EU net beneficiary, with farmers the most benefiting social group, European deputy minister Tomasz Nowakowski told the Sejm EU Committee. Nowakowski presented the committee with a government report on Poland's EU activities between July and December 2004. Among the membership disadvantages the report lists rising prices, especially of beef, pork and sugar. He also admitted that in its initial membership phase Poland "failed to achieve notable progress" in accessing EU labour markets. According to the report Poland's first months in the EU brought the country considerably more benefits than disadvantages, especially faster economic growth, bigger exports and higher agricultural growth. Among the period's major political developments the report names Poland's involvement in the recent political turnabout in Ukraine. 75 percent of Poles supported the EU in November 2004.
Russia: no blame for tension with Poland
Warsaw, Feb. 10: Although Polish-Russian relations are satisfying there is recurrent friction on both sides for which Russia takes no blame, Russian ambassador in Poland Nikolai Afanasjevski said at a press conference in Warsaw. Commenting the recent tension between Russia and Poland, Afanasjevski especially criticized the "spymania" atmosphere inspired by Polish media, according to whom "all Russian businessmen are either mafiosos or spies". This gave an underworld image to large Russian companies involving foreign capital, also U.S. funded, the ambassador said. If you abandon the view that only the Russians are to blame here you'll begin to get a true picture of the situation, Afanasjevski stated, adding that despite media reports relations between both countries were developing well. He also stressed that Russia had no plans to subordinate Poland. The press conference was held in connection with Russian Diplomatic Service Day, celebrated in Russia since 2002.
Dutch Eureko not to agree to PZU's IPO postponement
Warsaw, Feb, 11: Dutch insurer Eureko will not agree to delaying Polish insurance company PZU's IPO from June to autumn, and has no intention to renegotiate the December 2004 settlement it reached with the Polish government, Eureko's Vice President Ernst Jansen has told PAP. Treasury Minister Jacek Socha has recently suggested to Eureko to postpone PZU's debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) to autumn, in connection with investigations into PZU privatisation by the Sejm special commission. According to Jansen, Eureko does not want to renegotiate the settlement with the Treasury it reached in December. "We gave the Ministry time to February 7 to sign the settlement. After this date we don't feel bound by the negotiated text," Jansen said. In line with the December Treasury-Eureko deal PZU debut on the WSE was to take place in June and both sides would relinquish claims to majority control over the firm. Socha has most recently proposed an autumn IPO but Eureko representatives have immediately said they see no reason to renegotiate. Jansen underlined the importance of IPO for proper valuation of Poland's biggest insurer PZU. The political turmoil seems to hurt company's valuation, he explained.
Lucchini: Warsaw's steelworks to be sold to Arcelor
Rome, Warsaw, Feb. 11: The Lucchini group-owned Huta Warszawa steelworks will be sold to Arcelor, Luigi Lucchini said in an interview for Friday's Corriere della Sera. "We will sell Huta Warszawa to Arcelor for 100 million euros," Lucchini said without elaborating. Spain's Arcelor is one of the biggest steel producers in the world. Meanwhile Huta Warszawa's spokeswoman Ewa Karpinska said that the steelworks received no official confirmation of the plans to sell it to Arcelor. On Wednesday Russian Severstal signed a deal to buy 62 percent of the Lucchini group for 450 million euros. The transaction will be fianlised in two months' time, once the deal is approved by the Italian Anti-Monopoly Office. The parties to the deal failed to decide then what role in the group, after Russian takeover, Lucchini-owned Warsaw's steelworks will play. In 1992 the Lucchini group took over a majority stake (68 percent) of the Huta Warszawa, the biggest Polish steel producer.
Payments from SAPARD to resume next week
Warsaw, Feb. 10: The European Commission will transfer 25 million euros to Poland for the implementation of the SAPARD programme. This will allow the Polish side to start eliminating delays in payments of SAPARD funds as of next week, Agriculture Minister Wojciech Olejniczak said on Thursday. The payments were halted in December 2004 due to lack of EU means. Current delays reach some 400 million zlotys (100 million euros). Olejniczak added that apart from EU money, the Polish side will not resign from applying for a credit which would allow to support the steady flow of payments.
Episcopate against liberalisation of anti-abortion law
Warsaw, Feb. 10: Polish bishops criticised draft legislation on planned motherhood for what they termed a "complete freedom to kill conceived babies." The bishops sent a statement to this effect to the Sejm speaker. The statement praises the present anti-abortion law for its positive effects for the baby and the mother, and for changes in social consciousness it brought about, as confirmed by government reports. The bishops wrote that the new legislation proposes "abortions for under-age girls without a need to inform parents, compulsory sexual education from the start of elementary school and state budget financing of abortion, contraceptives and artificial procreation."
Some 70 companies want to debut on WSE
Warsaw, Feb. 10: Some 70 companies want to float their shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange during the next two years, the National Bank of Poland (NBP) reported on the results of its research Thursday. Thirty six companies had their debut on the Warsaw floor in 2004. In the group of non-issuers, 3.4 pct (around 70) of polled companies said they plan to offer the shares in public offer. Ten companies from the group of issuers said they plan additional issues in the next two years. The research results also showed that insufficient knowledge of the capital market is a limitation to companies trying to attract capital on the equity market. High entry cost is another barrier in the development of the capital market.
Software producers lose 83 million zlotys to pirates
Lodz, Feb. 10: Last year Polish software producers lost an estimated 83 million zlotys (26.7 mn USD) to the pirate market, double the 2003 figure, the Business Software Alliance organization (BSA) informed PAP on Thursday. Listed among the biggest losers are Adobe, Autodesk, Corel, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec. Last year Polish police seized over 25,000 illegal CDs, 647 computers and 53 recorders. The biggest haul was a 12,000 batch of bootleg CDs in Ruda Slaska, south Poland.
Anniversary of first mass deportation of Polish citizens
Warsaw, Feb. 10: The Karta centre will publish another list of Poles deported to the Soviet Union to mark the 65th anniversary of the first wave of mass Stalinist deportations of Poles. Within two years biographical entries of 100 thousand people, close to one-third of the deportees, will be published. "Today is the anniversary of the first deportation, the deportation of settlers and foresters," historian professor Albin Glowacki said.
Conference against discrimination of Roma people
Wroclaw, Feb. 10: Ways of countering prejudices against the Roma people were discussed in Wroclaw, south-western Poland, on Thursday within the framework of a conference "Against Discrimination. Roma people-administration-police: experience from contacts." The conference was attended by 60 participants of which representatives of the Roma people accounted for some 50 percent. The symposium was organised by THESAURUS, the Lower Silesia Centre of the Protection of Cultural Heritage.
CIA agent says Col. Kuklinski saved his country
Warsaw, Feb. 10: CIA's David Forden who cooperated with Col. Ryszard Kuklinski in the 1970s said here Thursday that Kuklinski risked his life for his country. Forden came to Poland to promote American author Benjamin Weiser's biographical book " Ryszard Kuklinski: A Secret Life" published in Poland recently. David Forden, one of the main figures in the book, was a CIA officer who cooperated with Kuklinski since 1972. Between 1972 and 1981 Kuklinski acted as CIA secret agent on Polish General Staff before he escaped to the USA. In Forden's opinion information passed by Kuklinski was of key importance for the American policy vis a vis the Warsaw Treaty. Kuklinski was exceptional valuable because of the position he occupied and the confidence he enjoyed among the then Polish leadership. According to Forden, Col. Kuklinski was guided by the conviction that he had a mission to carry out. He believed that his country was on verge of abyss and was afraid that the military policy imposed on Poland by the Warsaw Treaty command would lead the country to a catastrophe. He was motivated by the will to save the country, Forden said.
CBOS: Election campaign to be decisive in parliamentary polls
Warsaw, Feb. 11: Election campaign may be all-important for electoral decisions of Poles, a survey carried out by the CBOS polling institution found. Only 26 percent of those questioned who declared they would vote in the forthcoming general elections and are sure of their election choices, are 100 percent certain of their decisions and rule out a change of preferences (against 49 percent in 1997 at a comparable stage of preparations for the elections). Twenty-one percent said their backing for a party is conditional and a change of preferences is not excluded. The Social-Democracy of the Republic of Poland (SdPL), Polish Peasant Party (PSL) and Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) have relatively most determined electorate with 56 percent of supporters being certain to vote for SdPL and 52 percent for PSL and SLD. Thirty three percent of the electorate of the League of Polish Families are sure they would vote for the party which compares to 34 percent in case of the Law and Justice, 42 percent in case of the Citizens' Platform, and 43 percent in case of Self-Defence. CBOS interviewed 1,089 adult Poles on January 7 to 10.
Warsaw, Feb. 14: It would be highly improper for us to comment on singular statements, e.g. on Yalta, voiced in Russia. Doing so we would add importance to them, PM Marek Belka told referring to a position of the Russian foreign ministry. Belka stressed that the Polish assessment of the conference in Yalta and its settlements is well known. He added that the planned visit of the Polish delegation at ceremonies marking the end of WW2 in Moscow does not mean that Poland's evaluation of Yalta or the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact has changed. "Actually our presence there would more clearly speak to participants in the ceremonies, he explained.
Warsaw, Feb. 14: President Aleksander Kwasniewski should not take part in ceremonies marking the end of World War 2 in Moscow on May 9, 2005, believes Warsaw President and one of Law and Justice PiS leaders Lech Kaczynski. According to Kaczynski, the liberation of central Europe from Nazi terror plunged the region into dependence from Soviet Russia. "Nothing good has happened in Russia. The 60th anniversary of victory over the Nazi Germany surely deserves to be celebrated but not as the anniversary of the liberation of Central Europe". It brought no freedom. It is true that Central Europe was liberated from Nazi Germany and the fact was then welcomed with happiness but on the other hand Nazi Germany occupation was replaced by heavy dependence on then Soviet Russia, the change of the political system and terror largely directed against the most patriotic forces in our country," he added explaining why Kwasniewski should not go to Moscow on May 9, 2005. ITAR-TASS wrote that the Russian foreign ministry deems dishonest attempts made in Poland and other countries to question the results of the conference in Yalta. According to the Russian foreign ministry their Polish partners have committed "a sin" complaining on settlements reached in Yalta where the allied powers actually promoted a "strong, free, independent and democratic Poland and gave the country security guarantees."
Warsaw, Feb. 14: Poland's first non-communist PM Tadeusz Mazowiecki, deputy PM Jerzy Hausner, Freedom Union leader Wladyslaw Frasyniuk and Centre Party head Janusz Steinhoff have officially announced the formation of a new political party. The four politicians signed an open letter "to those who do not want to be helpless." The time has come to embark on the creation of a broad democratic political formation that would boost citizens' participation in political life and would unequivocally and persistently support the market economy, free development of science, education and culture and promoting a lasting place of Poland in the EU," the wrote. The formation programme is going to be worked out in cooperation with representatives of local government, non-governmental institutions, businessmen, artists, writers, youth, civil servants.
Warsaw, Feb. 14: The Finance Ministry paid 34.1 million USD and 65.9 million euros of interest on Poland's foreign debt in January 2005 as well as 6.0 million USD and 3.3 million euros in principal, the ministry wrote in a statement. "Interest payments chiefly covered treasury bonds issued abroad (Paris Club credits, Japanese credit and credits of international monetary institutions)".
Warsaw, Feb. 14: Poland's foreign trade deficit fell to 11 bn 445.6 million euros after the 12 months of 2004 from 12 bn 827.4 million euros after the 12 months of 2003, the Central Statistical Office (GUS) said. Exports, at 59 bn 698.4 million euros after the 12 months of 2004, rose 25.6 pct. Imports, at 71 bn 144.0 million euros after the 12 months of 2004, rose 17.9 pct. Foreign trade deficit in dollars fell to 14 bn 117.2 million USD, from 14 bn 427.0 million USD after December 2003. Exports in dollars increased to 73 bn 791.5 million USD, or by 37.7 pct. Imports in dollars increased to 87 bn 908.7 million USD, or by 29.3 pct.
Warsaw, Feb. 14: Fishing boats from Western Pomerania will be send to the Asian region ravaged by tsunami. The European Commission prepared a resolution enabling the cutters' transfer to fishermen from the Indian Ocean. The Brussels proposal aroused controversy. The operation is very expensive and nobody realises that the costs of transport are huge. Fishing boats have to be modernised and in particular their cooling systems as Brussels specified technological requirements. According to Ryszard Klimczak, deputy president of the Association of Fishing Boats Owners. The operation, carried out by Italians and Dutchmen and paid by EU member-states is to conclude on June 30, 2006. Poland has 416 registered fishing boats. According to the agriculture ministry 40 pct of them will be sent to Asia.
Brussels, Feb. 14: Kujawsko-Pomorskie province, north-central Poland, opened its mission at European institutions. Thus all Polish regions are present in Brussels. The office is to promote the region, collect information on projects prepared by European institutions and seek possible funds which can be obtained in Brussels in cooperation with other partners, Kujawsko-Pomorskie governor Waldemar Chramowicz told.
Warsaw, Feb. 14: British writer Jeanette Winterson is coming to Poland on a three-day visit starting Wednesday. She will promote her new book "Lighthousekeeping" which has just appeared in Polish bookshops. The writer will meet her Polish readers in Warsaw, and she will go to Poznan and to Gdansk. "Lighthousekeeping" is the first of her planned cycle of novels. Winterson is considered to be a leading representative of the feminist writing in the contemporary British literature. Her first book "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" published in 1985 was awarded the prestigious Whitbread Prize for best debut of the year. Another of her novels "The Passion" is currently being adapted for the screen with Juliette Binoche and Gwyneth Paltrow starring. She also wrote essays on art: Art and Lies, Art Object.
Warsaw, Feb. 14: Thirty-seven percent of Poles in a CBOS poll expected their finances to improve this year, 31 percent expected a worsening of their material standing. One in three hoped for better earnings or pension hikes. 19 percent expected a worsening of their living standards and raised living costs, 13 percent feared crossing the poverty level. Most fears about the coming year were voiced by elementary school graduates, low-bracket earners and people from poor households. Most of this group were over 65, disabled or unemployed. Most employmeny hopes came from the unemplopyed (70 percent), schoolyouth and students (44 percent). CBOS ran the poll from January 7 to 11 on a random group of 1,089 adult Poles.
Warsaw, Feb. 14: 58 of Poles recently surveyed by the CBOS have said they are in love. 6 percent have never heard about the St. Valentine's Day. St. Valentine's Day has been introduced in Poland relatively recently and 33 percent of the polled Poles found it "very nice." 42 percent accepted it though without enthusiasm and 19 percent did not like it. CBOS run the poll on February 4-7, 2004 on a 1,070 sample of adult Poles.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: The Social Democracy of Poland SdPl believes a Russian foreign ministry's statement about the conference in Yalta "distorted the history." In a statement the SdPl wrote it expected that the Polish president, PM and foreign minister would personally draw the latter's attention to the harmful nature of similar statements to bilateral relations. The Russian foreign ministry stated it deemed dishonest attempts made in Poland and other countries to question the results of the conference in Yalta. According to the Russian foreign ministry their Polish partners have committed "a sin" complaining on settlements reached in Yalta where the allied powers actually promoted a "strong, free, independent and democratic Poland and gave the country security guarantees." The SdPl assessed as false the idea that that as a result of the conference a free and independent Poland could be established. The party wrote that the conference in Yalta left Poland in the Soviet zone of influence." The process violated all independence and democratic aspirations of Poles, whose resistance was brutally repressed. Free and democratic Poland was established only in 1989, the statement reads. At the same time the statement stressed that the SdPl opts for "good neighbourly Polish-Russian relations on equal footing but these relations should be build on truth.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: Marek Borowski, ex-parliamentary speaker and leader of the leftwing Social-democracy for Poland, will be decorated with the Lithuanian Great Cross of Merit for his support of Lithania's EU and NATO ambitions. The medal, granted by Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus, will be awarded to Borowski in Vilnius on Lithuania's National Day (February 16). Borowski told that he felt "very honoured" to receive the distinction. In Vilnius Borowski is to meet Adamkus and Lithuanian PM Algirdas Brazauskas.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: The Defence Ministry is negotiating with the Americans the timetable of equipping Polish army with surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles, Rzeczpospolita daily reports in its edition. The daily says the Polish army is contracting six Hunter units. The majority of 130 million USD in military aid which Washington plans to earmark for Poland in 2005 will be spent on the project. The unmanned vehicles, together with surveillance equipment placed on F-16 and six long-range radars built by NATO in Poland, are to revolutionize the Polish army's reconnaissance.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: The cabinet supported most changes to the law on public assistance and health care institutions, Health Minister Marek Balicki told after a cabinet meeting. The most important change is that in order to get a loan from the state budget a given health care unit would not have to renounce further claims from the so called 203 law guaranteeing mandatory raises for health care employees. Balicki recalled that the law will enable state-run hospitals to break the vicious circle of debts and to introduce solutions that would help health care units avoid debt incurring following restructuring. The law will also halt debt collecting procedures for two years. The amendment also envisages debt write-off agreements between hospitals and debtors The minister also said that the cabinet approved a draft law on a programme of choppers exchange for the Airborne Medical Rescue service in the years 2005-2010. He explained that although the programme would cost ca. 129.4 million USD it would allow for the purchase of 20 choppers. "Thereby we will increase the area serviced by Airborne Rescue Service from 40 percent to 50 percent of territory," Balicki stressed.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: The Constitutional Tribunal rejected a proposed 50-percent income tax bracket for Poland's top-bracket earners on grounds of its inconsistence with the constitution. Finance minister Jaroslaw Neneman said he was pleased with the decision.
Brussels, Feb. 15: Poland has done much to support its small and medium enterprise, especially by launching incentive projects and adjusting laws, the European Commission reported. According to the EC all the new EU members have achieved progress in boosting their SME markets. Poland is among the leaders in business education, adjusting laws to SME needs and introducing measures against skilled labour shortages. The EC has announced new measures to boost conditions for small and medium enterprise.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: In summer 2005 inflation may fall below 2 percent from 4 percent in January. At the end of the year it may be below 2.5 percent if the zlotys continues to be strong, said Finance Minister Miroslaw Gronicki. He explained that the weakening of the zloty may push inflation up in the second half of the year. The Central Statistical Office GUS reported that year-on-year inflation in January fell to 4 percent from 4.4 percent in December. CPI was at 0.1 percent. Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 7 percent from January 2004 but fell 0.3 percent from December 2004. The finance minister added that the ministry expected inflation in February and March to keep the level of reported in January.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: A total of 1.6 million square metres of selling space in trade centres will be put into use in Poland in 2005-2006, the biggest amount in Europe, according to a Cushman&Wakefield Healey&Baker survey. The planned space in trade centres in Poland is bigger than in any other European country - 1.6 million square metres in 2005-2006, C&W/H&B said. There is a boom of trade centres in Poland. New centres are being built not only in big cities such as Warsaw, Cracow, Poznan, Lodz and Wroclaw but also in medium-size towns, Piotr Kaszynski of the Polish C&W/H&B office said.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: If Poland fails to take advantage of a good economic situation and abandons plans to join the euro zone in 2010 at the latest, the next such opportunity might occur five years later, president's enconomic adviser Witold Orlowski said. He noted that the coming 4-5 years are the best time for Poland's joining the euro zone in view of a god economic situation. Otherwise, taking into account expected economic slowdown after a high growth period, Poland's euro zone entry will likely be postponed by 3 to 4 years. If the central bank controls the situation and prevents overheating of the economy, it will be feasible for Poland to enter the euro zone in 2008-2010. "Otherwise 2015 can be expected," he said. The government assumed that Poland will join the euro zone in 2009.
Warsaw, Feb.15: Financial outlays on the construction and renovation of motorways and expressways will rise by one fourth this year over 2004, while overall outlays on road building and maintenance will reach over ca. 2.3 bn USD, according to deputy minister of infrastructure Jan Kurylczyk. 122 km of new motorways and 41 km of expressways will be commissioned this year, while construction works will continue on 547 km and 232 km, respectively. According to a ministerial report submitted to the cabinet, 170 km of new motorways and 173 km of expressways will be commissioned in 2006. Construction works will be in progress on 726 km and 274 km, respectively.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: Carla Del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia will visit Poland on Feb. 17-18. Del Ponte will meet with Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld to discuss Tribunal's current work, including the course of its cooperation with states of the former Yugoslavia. Ms Del Ponte will also be received by President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Sejm Speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz. On the second day of her visit to Poland, she will visit the grounds of the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Warsaw, Feb. 15: Poles employed abroad earn less that the minimum wage in their host countries, often live in appalling conditions, receive no overtime and have no social insurance, the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported quoting a report on immigrant labour prepared by Oxford University and the British TUC trade union. According to the report east Europeans employed in the West often worked in slave-like conditions, received no social security and were bullied into obedience by employers. Jan Mokrzycki, head of Britain's biggest Polish organisation Polish Union, called the report "slightly exaggerated, but not too much". The report does mention some drastic cases. For instance two Polish construction workers who wanted to leave a job for which they were not being paid were caught and beaten up by their employer's people, Mokrzycki said. The paper also quoted Jonas Wahlin from the Swedish Electricians' Union, who admitted that Swedish employers often exploited east European workers. "They are paid 10,000 Crowns less than Swedes and offered closets and toilets Swedish employees would never accept. Neither are they embraced by any work safety regulations", Rzeczpospolita wrote quoting Wahlin.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: General Andrzej Ekiert, who led the Multinational Centre-South Division in Iraq was promoted by President Aleksander Kwasniewski to a higher rank and decorated with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit. The president underlined the soldiers' contribution to the preparation and holding elections in Iraq. He recalled that the programme of the multinational division also comprises training courses for the Iraqi soldiers and reconstruction projects.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: President Aleksander Kwasniewski thanked writers and artists for fruitful and successful cooperation during the 10 years of his term of office in the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. "Poland is known for its culture and artists. We are proud of you," the president underlined and said that it was his last meeting with artists as the president.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: Poland will seek to lessen tension between the EU and the United Stated on EU's lifting the embargo on arms trade with China, deputy foreign minister Boguslaw Zaleski said. The issue will be one of the topics to be discussed during an EU-U.S. summit scheduled to be held in Brussels on February 22, with U.S. president George W. Bush in attendance. Duing the discussion in the Sejm committee for foreign affairs Citizen's Platform's Bronislaw Komorowski said that Poland might take the intitative to work out the U.S.-EU agreement on the embargo on arms trade with China.
Warsaw, Olsztyn, Feb. 16: The Sejm voted 208 to 196 with one abstention to reject a hospital restructuring bill. Following a request from PM Marek Belka, Justice Minister Andrzej Kalwas will ask the Bailiff Association to refrain from impounding hospital accounts until the Sejm examines a draft amendment to the civil code, that is for the nearest two weeks. "This is not a vote of non-confidence for me but this is a problem for the health service," Health Minister Marek Balicki told. "The bill gave a chance to escape from the fetters of indebtedness, without preconditions, to those who wanted to undergo restructuring," he said. PAP learned unofficially from sources close to the health ministry that Balicki is mulling resignation after the Sejm decision. Deputy PM Jerzy Hausner criticised the Sejm decision and said that the parliament is to blame for wasting 18 months of work on the bill. Hausner added that the bill was necessary and amendments to it could have been introduced in the Senate. "The present situation creates a big problem. The work on the law lasted 18 months and I do not know what those who rejected it hope for," he said.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: The Sejm amended a State Labour Inspection (PIP) law to add cooperation with offices in other EU countries to PIP's tasks. The State Labour Inspection will cooperate with offices in other EU member states responsible for supervising work and employment conditions of workers sent to work on their territories for a specified period of time by an employer based in an EU country.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: The Senate at its sitting will discuss amendments to the country's energy and environment laws. Under the new, EU-conformant law, companies planning to compete on the Polish and EU markets will be granted easier access to the national power grid. The Senators will also discuss the introduction of new corporate models - the European Economic Interest Group and the European Company - and hear a report on Poland's participation in EU work under Holland's presidency of the Union (July-December 2004).
Warsaw, Feb. 16: Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski was decorated with a medal of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry for contribution in military cooperation and support for Lithuania in its strivings to get NATO and EU membership. "Our country's path to freedom, democracy and membership of the NATO and EU was difficult but it could have been more difficult without partners and friends," Lithuanian Ambassador to Poland Eygidyus Meylunes said handing over the medal to the minister. Addressing his guests on the Day of Lithuania's Rebirth the ambassador underlined the role of Poland's technological and training assistance. Szmajdzidski said Poland wants to develop cooperation with Lithuania in the structures which offer not only the greatest military but also economic security. Speaking of the possible development of the Polish-Lituanian battalion the minister declared readiness for Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian military cooperation.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski received the Chief of Defense of Latvian National Armed Forces, Vice Admiral Gaidis Andrejs Zeibots to discuss bilateral military cooperation. During the meeting Szmajdzinski expressed words of recognition for Latvian commanders and soldiers serving in the International Centre-South Division in Iraq under Polish command. The two also discussed problems with the restructuring of armed forces as well as the transformation of the Latvian armed forces into a professional army to take place in 2007.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski will pay a two-day working visit to Ukraine. Szmajdzinski will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Anatoli Hrycenko to review the state of bilateral military cooperation, cooperation in the Centre-South Division in Iraq and prospects of the continuation of the stabilization mission.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: According to bankers the annual average inflation in 2005 will be at 3.41 percent. At the end of the year the USD will be worth 3.35 zlotys and the euro - 4.11 zlotys. The survey was run by Pentor and the Union of Polish Banks. Representatives of banks in which home capital accounts for bigger chunk estimate inflation level at 3.44 percent, those from cooperative banks at 3.39 percent, stock exchange bankers believe it would be at 3.38 percent and banks with foreign capital at 3.40 percent. In January annual inflation fell to 4.0 percent from 4.4 percent in December 2004. The bankers also think that the lombard credit rate will be at 7.61 percent at the end of the year (down 0.06 point from the predicted figure), the bill of exchange rediscount rate will be at 6.66 percent (down 0.06 point), the average rate of credit for economic purposes at 10.27 percent (down 0.02 points) and the average rate on a three-month saving account will be at 3.58 percent (down 0.06 points).
Warsaw, Feb. 16: Pengab, banks sentiment indicator, fell in February 0.7 point from the January figure to 28.1 points. It is however higher by 3.6 points that this recorded in February 2004, indicates a recent Pentor survey commissioned by the Union of Polish Banks and published. Despite the fall, Pengab has the highest value reported in February since 2000, Pentor said. Forty one percent of banks reported a rise of cash deposits on current accounts in zlotys (7 points down from January). Time deposits rose in 46 percent of banks (down 6 points from January). 56 percent of banks expect growing deposits on current accounts (6 percentage points more). Fifty one percent of banks expect time deposits to grow and 12 percent believe they will fall. Fifty eight percent of banks reported a bigger number of credits granted in zlotys and 20 percent reported a fall. Eighty six percent of banks expect to grant more credits and 5 percent expect the opposite.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: Though no final decisions have been made talks between the Malopolska authorities and U.S. Seminole tribe from Florida are very promising. An airport opened throughout the year could be constructed by the Cordish Company on the premises of the Polish Aviation Club. The cost of the investment is estimated at ca. 9.7 - 13 million USD, writes Gazeta Krakowska daily. Seminole who have successfully run casinos and luxury hotels now plan to embark on offshore investments. Last autumn the tribe representatives came to Poland in search for investment sites and found Malopolska and especially the mountain region the most attractive. They came back a few months later accompanied by O.B. Osceola of the Seminole Tribe Council and David Cordish, the CEO of one of the U.S. biggest developers companies. The airport will attract tourists who have so far felt discouraged by the jammed car route leading to Zakopane, believes mayor of Nowy Targ Marek Fryzlewicz. The paper also writes that Nowy Targ lacks money for the expensive investment but is ready to give 130 hectares of land that belongs to the Aviation Club. Successive 300 hectares have been booked for airport infrastructure, the paper reports.
Berlin, Feb. 16: "Jam Session," a short subject movie by Izabela Plucinska won the Silver Bear Award at the 55th International Berlin Film Festival. Another Silver Bear Award went to "The Intervention" by Jay Duplass from the United States. The Gold Bear Award went to 10-minute British movie "Milk" by Peter Mackie Burns.
Warsaw, Feb. 16: The Polish Academy of Sciences PAN will open its bureau in Brussels as from March 1, with the view to promoting Polish research initiatives in Europe, Dr. Jan Krzysztof Frackowiak, head of the new centre told. The bureau will help Polish scientists and innovative entrepreneurs to acquire EU funds for research programme and will act as an intermediary in establishing cooperation between Polish centres and scientific institutions in other countries. The PAN Brussels centre will present in Europe Poland's stand on basic research and establishing the European Research Council to deal with development of basic research.
Zagreb, Feb. 18: President Aleksander Kwasniewski attended a ceremony at which Croatian President Stipe Mesic was sworn-in for the second term. Kwasniewski told following meetings with Croatian politicians that there was a will on their part to settle the problem of General Ante Gotovina, that is to convey him to the tribunal in the Hague. There is a very strong determination on the part of the president and the PM of Croatia to bring general Gotovina to the tribunal for a just verdict and to start EU negotiations on March 17th, Kwasniewski said. Undersecretary of State at the Presidential Chancellery Andrzej Majkowski told that Kwasniewski's presence at the ceremony was an expression of support for Croatia's aspirations to gain membership of NATO and EU.
Warsaw, Feb. 20: President Aleksander Kwasniewski attended a gala concert marking the 15th anniversary of the Polish Chamber of Commerce KIG in Warsaw. Aleksander Kwasniewski said he was very satisfied with dynamical development of the Polish economy which was mirrored by a 40-percent growth of exports. Kwasniewski said that KIG contributed to the success of the Third Republic of Poland as it had fought for sound principles of the market economy, counteracted pathology, corruption and dishonesty. He wished the chamber to play an equally important role in the promotion of Poland.
Warsaw, Feb. 18: In 15 years Poland has achieved what took other countries a century, PM Marek Belka said at a debate on Polish transformations with former Polish PM's Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Leszek Miller and Jozef Oleksy. Absent from the meeting organized by the Gazeta Prawna newspaper were ex-PM's Jerzy Buzek, Jan Olszewski and Waldemar Pawlak. Belka warned against attempts to destroy Poland's current order. Attempts at destruction mean starting everything anew. What we need, however, is a little time and stability. According to the PM Poland has attained all the strategic goals it undertook since 1989 and today can look back on the most prosperous 15 years of its history. As the period's biggest drawback Belka named Poland's 3-million unemployment rate. Bielecki said that in his opinion communism had ravaged Poland even more than the German occupation, and especially pointed to the "helplessness" of the country's legal system. The law's helplessness, the ensuing lack of justice, and the general belief that if you're smart enough you'll get by somehow are all appalling and indecent. Cimoszewicz countered by reminding that there were more civil liberties in Poland today than before 1989. He admitted, however, that communism had "terribly deformed society's view of the state" and that the public attitude towards laws would have to change. For generations Poles have had a specific attitude to the law, treating it as a necessary evil. If laws are obeyed it is not because people think this is right but because they fear the consequences of not doing so. Miller pointed out that Poland's main task for the coming years will be catching up with the EU. If we don't manage to do this Europe will be split into an A, B, and maybe even a C part, he warned. Oleksy stressed the importance of long-range planning and modernization for the country's future. Poland's shape in 15 years will mainly depend on our success in modernizing the country, making it more accessible to its citizens, more effective, cheaper and less corrupt.
Warsaw, Feb. 18: Poland will not give up a role of a promoter of Ukraine's pro-European and pro-Atlantic aspirations, Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld said after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Boris Tarasiuk. Rotfeld announced that Poland will suggest to other EU countries to adopt a more liberal visa system for Ukraine. The Ukrainian foreign minister was hopeful that a dispute around the Polish cemetary in Lvov might be resolved this year. Tarasiuk said that during his visit to Lvov President Viktor Yushchenko asked the Lvov authorities to return to the issue "in the spirit of Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation and friendship." He stressed he chose Poland as the destination of his first foreign visit to express gratitude to Polish president, government and nation for supporting Ukraine's democratisation process and the "orange revolution." He thanked Rotfeld for backing Ukraine's EU and NATO aspirations. Also discussed were issues relating to Iraq and Ukraine's plans to withdraw its troops. Rotfeld said that the decision came as no surprise for Poland, given that after the elections the situation in Iraq should be perceived in a different way. "Poland's relations with Ukraine do not cover only politics and diplomacy, but also economy, culture and relations between people," PM Marek Belka said during his meeting with Boris Tarasiuk. Belka reiterated that Poland would support Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. The Ukraine's foreign minister met with Senate Speaker Longin Pastusiak to discuss bilateral relations and Ukraine's integration with the EU.
Warsaw, Feb. 18: Poland shares a critical opinion about the Lisbon Strategy that foresees that the EU economy will reach the highest competitiveness by 2010, deputy PM Jerzy Hausner told the Sejm Committee for the EU issues. He added that Poland supports plans to reduce the number of targets included in the strategy formulated in 2000. Hausner criticised the EU for stiff regulations, and stressed that the quality of the regulations should be improved. Early in February the European Commission proposed changes designed to heal the Lisbon Strategy and help carry out its main goals, that is employment and competitiveness growth.
Warsaw, Feb. 20: Justice Minister Andrzej Kalwas has appealed to head of the national chamber of debt collectors to stop seizing indebted hospitals' and clinics' money until changes to the civil proceedings code are introduced. Meanwhile, the presidential draft law on public assistance and health care units restructuring, previously presented by the government continues to stir up controversy. The League of Polish Families and the Citizens' Platform believe the draft should be rejected by the Sejm. Also the Law and Justice PiS is unlikely to support the draft. The Polish Peasant Party PSL already announced it would not support the draft and submitted its own draft protecting health care employees pays. The presidential draft contains amendments Health Minister Marek Balicki failed to present to the Senate whereby 50 percent of a unit debt could be written off if restructuring ended in five years.
Bialystok, Feb. 18: Visa policy and consular aid dominated talks in Bialystok, northeast Poland between consular, foreign ministry and border officials from Poland and Belarus. Last year Polish visas were issued to over 280,000 Belarussians, in the same period 50,000 Poles received Belarussian visas, Maciej Szymanski from the Polish foreign ministry said. Also discussed were consular measures in crime cases. Present at the meeting was Belarussian ambassador in Poland Pavel Latushka.
Bialystok, Feb. 18: In 2004 Poland's trade with Belarus reached a record 1.2 billion USD, 55 percent above the to-date record year 2003, Belarussian ambassador Pavel Latushka said. Latushka said Poland's 2004 investments in Belarus came to 29 million USD, exceeding 2003 by 44.5 percent. About 50 Belarussian firms have offices or branches in Poland. Poland's imports from Belarus mainly include petroleum products, construction materials and chemicals. Poland's sales to Belarus cover machines, equipment, timber, metals, food and construction materials.
Warsaw, Feb. 20: Former PM Leszek Miller has confirmed reports about going soon to the United States for four months to prepare a report on "the role of contemporary Poland in central and east Europe" and Polish-U.S. relations. The visit will be paid at the invitation of Washington-based Wilson Institute. "This is a very interesting topic for me. I also think that for the Americans Poland's image of its role as a country bordering on the east and west, the EU and states outside it may be very interesting. He said he may cut short his stay if elections are held in June. He also said that he had resigned from his remuneration as MP during the trip to which he is entitled. I have submitted a related document. I would like to say that taking money from two different sources would be deeply immoral, he explained. Deputy Sejm Speaker Tomasz Nalecz told he would expect a deputy leaving for such a long time to waive his mandate. Opposition MPs believe such long absence from electorate could not be justified as MP's should mind his commitments to the electorate in the country.
Torun, Feb. 20: Tomas Venclova, Lithuanian poet, writer, critic and translator as well as human rights' activists received the honorary doctor's degree of Mikolaj Kopernik University in Torun. The degree went to Venclova for "persistently seeking a language of understanding between cultures and nations." "If I have done anything which I can take pride in it is the work for Polish-Lithuanian rapproachement," he said upon receiving the title. Venclova translated into Lithuanian works of Poland's greatest poets and writers like Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Zbigniew Herbert and Nobel Prize laureates in Literature Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska.
Lodz, Feb. 20: Over 40 photographic displays from all over the world will be on show at the 4th International Photography Festival in Lodz from May 11 to 15. The festival's highlight will be a Review of European Photographic Schools featuring photographs by Polish and European photography students and taking place in the Lodz old textile factories. On show at the Festival will be works by photographers from France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, the U. S. and Poland. More info about the exibitions can be found on the Internet site www.fotofestiwal.com.
Warsaw, Feb. 20: The Citizens' Platform (PO) with 28 percent of votes would win parliamentary elections if the ballot was held in February, according to a recent poll run by Pentor. PO would be followed by Samoobrona with 14 pct, the League of Polish Families supported by 12 pct of the polled and the Law and Justice by 11 pct. Support for those parties is more or less the same so each of the parties can count on the second place in the polls. The ruling coalition of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the
Union of Labour (UP) can count on 10 percent of votes, while the Polish Peasant Party (PSL) would get 6 percent. The Socialdemocracy of Poland (SdPl) with 5 percent as well as the Freedom Union (UW) are balancing on the election threshold. The number of people negatively assessing President Aleksander Kwasniewski went up to 60 percent of those polled. 71 percent said they were dissatisfied with the performance of the Marek Belka cabinet. The poll was carried out on a representative sample of 1,000 adult Poles between February 5 and 6.
Brussels, Feb. 22: PM Marek Belka and a Polish delegation to the EU-U.S. summit in Brussels arrived in the Belgian capital to take part in talks on the Mideast, Iraq, Iran the Balkans, east Europe and U. S. visa policy between EU leaders and U. S. president George W. Bush and a meeting between EU foreign ministers and U. S. state secretary Condoleezza Rice. Polish deputy foreign minister Jan Truszczynski said the EU had high hopes in connection with today's talks but warned not to expect political declarations or "roadmaps" for resolving global issues.
Brussels, Feb. 22: NATO states leaders met with Ukraine President Victor Yushchenko and confirmed the open door approach of the alliance for Ukriane, Poland's Foreign Minister Adam Daniel Rotfeld said summing up a NATO-Ukraine meeting. Sooner or later Ukraine is expected to join Euro-Atlantic structures that means NATO and EU, Rotfeld said. He added that such a hope was also expressed by President Aleksander Kwasniewski during his speech. The foreign minister said he was rather surprised by silence presented by leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Belgium at the NATO-Ukraine meeting. "This silence has its significance," Rotfeld said. However, the Polish minister is of the opinion that the Tuesday meeting between NATO and Ukraine "undoubtedly was a step forward" towards bringing Ukraine closer to the Euro-Atlantic structures though no date of possible integration had been mentioned.
Brussels, Feb. 22: Polish Foreign Minister Adam Daniel Rotfeld conveyed to his German counterpart a report prepared by the so called Warsaw Reflection Group on how to change relations between the NATO and EU. Both ministers attended a NATO summit in Brussels devoted to Ukraine and a proposal to reform the alliance, recently presented by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Rotfeld recalled that last spring still before the NATO summit in Istanbul the future of the alliance had been discussed by the Warsaw Reflection Group that was attended by experts in international security including Bronislaw Geremek and Janusz Onyszkiewicz. Then the analysts presented a report on how relations should be changed so as to boost cooperation between the NATO and EU. We are ready to continue the work of the Warsaw Reflection Group to help the alliance meet new needs, Rotfeld said.
Warsaw, Feb. 22: Sejm speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz will pay a working visit to Ukraine on February 23 and 24 on an invitation by Ukrainian Supreme Council chairman Wolodymyr Lytvyn. In Ukraine Cimoszewicz will discuss bilateral relations between Poland and Ukraine and both countries' international cooperation plans. Cimoszewicz will also meet high-ranking Ukrainian government officials.
Katowice, Feb. 22: There is room in Poland for an understanding above left-right divisions, Sejm speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said in Katowice. I believe there is room in Poland today for (...) a broader understanding (...) above ideological divisions into left and right, especially among those who are for moderation and against radicalism in approaching state and public issues, Cimoszewicz said. Referring to Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) caucus leader Krzysztof Janik's suggestion to create a new pro-European initiative on the left, Cimoszewicz admitted that the left was in a "very precarious situation" and suggested it seek "an inner understanding around concrete values". He added that this was especially important in light of a possible government takeover by a "rather radical right". This could be a stability risk for our country, Cimoszewicz warned.
Warsaw, Feb.22: The cabinet adopted a bill lifting the 2000 law under which managers of state firms could not earn more than 6 times the average national wage, the state treasury minister Jacek Socha said after the cabinet meeting. "The 2000 law failed to bring the desired effects," he told. Moreover, the law is incompatible with article 86 of the EC Founding Treaty, which forbids unequal treatment of public and private firms. The cabinet decided that guidelines for salaries of top managers in state firms would now be determined by respective ministers overseeing the firms, Socha said. The bill will be sent to the Sejm in the near future.
Kielce, Feb. 22: Only true knowledge about Yalta and its consequences can help strengthen European unity, democracy in east Europe and relations between Europe and Russia, MEPs from the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) wrote in a draft EP resolution on "the longterm consequences of world war two". PiS has announced that it will press for the resolution's adoption before the May-9-scheduled armistice celebrations in Moscow. The PiS document urges the EP and EC to "back undertakings aimed at eliminating the consequences of totalitarian communist governments" and calls on the EU states to "show understanding and sympathy (...) to those who were left behind the Iron Curtain".
Olsztyn, Feb. 22: Joining the euro zone as soon as possible would be the best strategy for Poland but the accession scenario hinges on political risk related to the forthcoming elections, believes central bank governor Leszek Balcerowicz. Addressing young people in Olsztyn, western Poland, Balcerowicz said that even if the adoption of the euro pushes prices up it would be an inconsiderable and one-time raise compared to long-term profits produced by the adoption of the euro. The convergence programme worked out by the government envisages that Poland will meet criteria needed for adopting the euro in 2007. If so 2009 would be the feasible date of introducing the European currency. However, Finance Minister Miroslaw Gronicki has said recently Poland would be most likely to introduce the euro as late as 2010 or 2011. Gronicki believes early introduction of the euro may be hampered by a European Commission negative opinion on the classification of means collected at open pension funds OFE. If, in line with EU guidelines public finances would be diminished by transfers to OFE Poland's budget deficit would grow by 1.5 percentage point therefore rendering it impossible for Poland to meet the fiscal criterion by 2007. Government and central bank representatives maintain there is no official deadline for Poland to join the euro and that everything depends on an agreement between the two state bodies. Balcerowicz also said he would not run for the post of governor of the World Bank.
Olsztyn, Feb.22: Macroeconomic data confirm the upturn in capital investments and prospects for their growth are good, central bank governor Leszek Balcerowicz said here Tuesday. "The upturn in investments is a fact and there is much to indicate that it will last or even accelerate," he said. Economists expect investments to be the main engine of economic growth in Poland this year. Some even expect a two-digit growth in investments this year, pointing to good results of companies, funds coming from the EU and the strong zloty as factors conducive to such growth. Economists predict that GDP growth will reach 3.4 pc in the first quarter, accelerate to 3.9 pc in the second, and to 4.7 pc and 5.3 pc in the final two quarters. The annual average will be 4.5 pc.
Torun, Feb. 22: A regional court in the city of Torun awarded ca. 23,000 USD to Anna Walentynowicz, 75, for wrongful imprisonment more than two decades ago. At the time she spent seven months in prison for organizing an anti-government demonstration. Walentynowicz, an activist in the illegal free-union movement, was dismissed from her job as a shipyard crane operator at Gdansk's Lenin shipyard in August 1980, prompting employees to stop work in protest. The court ruled that her 1983 imprisonment ruined her health and caused financial losses.
Warsaw, Feb. 22: Famous painter Zdzislaw Beksinski was murdered in his Warsaw flat, Warsaw police reported. Beksinski, one of the best known contemporary painters was born on February 24, 1929. He was the only European painter who has a permanent exhibition in Osaka, Japan. His work is on display in the National Museum in Wroclaw, the National Museum in Warsaw and in the Historic Museum in his native Sanok, southeastern Poland.
Warsaw, Feb. 22: Only 20 percent of Poles positively assess the Marek Belka government and 26 percent voice the opposite opinion, according to a February poll carried out by CBOS. In January Belka's government was supported by 25 percent of Poles and 30 had the negative opinion. Marek Belka as the PM is positively assessed by 31 percent of respondents to the poll (against 32 percent in the previous survey). 40 percent are unhappy with him being the PM (against 42 percent in a previous survey). Twenty seven percent of the surveyed were happy with the results of the government operations (against 32 percent in January). Poor opinions were voiced by 46 percent of the polled (against 45 percent in the previous poll). Twenty four percent are convinced that Belka's economic policy may improve the country economic situation (against 28 percent in January). The opposite opinion was voiced by 54 percent against 52 percent in the January poll. CBOS run the poll on February 4-7 on a representative sample of 1,070 adult Poles.
Warsaw, Feb. 22: Fifty-five percent of Poles in a February OBOP survey declared indifference, 23 percent positive and 18 percent negative feelings about Russia. 49 percent claimed indifference towards the Russian people, 39 percent had a positive and 9 percent a negative attitude towards Russians. In a 2002 poll 51 percent were indifferent, 33 percent sympathised and 12 percent criticised Russia and the Russians. 42 percent claimed Polish-Russian relations have deteriorated in the past years, 15 percent said they had improved, 33 percent that they were unchanged. 31 percent believed Russia would be a hazard for Poland in future, 42 percent that it will be a friendly partner. According to OBOP Russia evoked more negative emotions in Poles than the Russian people. OBOP ran the survey from February 4 to 8 on a random group of 1,004 Poles aged 15 and over.
Warsaw, Feb. 21: PM Marek Belka will go to Brussels to take part in the meeting of heads of states or/ and chiefs of the governments of the EU countries and accompanying them foreign ministers with President George W. Bush. Belka will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Adam Daniel Rotfeld, head of the Presidential Chancellery Minister Slawomir Cytrycki and deputy foreign minister Jan Truszczynski. The programme of the visit also envisages a meeting of EU foreign ministers with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Warsaw, Feb.21: Marek Belka will not decide to join the new party being formed by Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, the leader of the Freedom Union (UW), as long as he is PM. "I realize that if you say 'a', you must say 'b'," he told. "I would have to fix the date for a resignation of the cabinet." "I think there is room for the new party and a demand for it. I am watching the initiative with sympathy and interest, but I am the PM and have a lot of work to do. Until this work is done I will not make political decisions (concerning party membership)," Belka explained. He also reiterated that the elections should be held in the spring. "I hope that the Sejm will decide about its self-dissolution for instance on May 5 and pave the way for a June election," he added.
Kielce, Feb. 21: Ninety soldiers who will soon leave for Bosnia and Herzegovina to take part in EUFOR, EU military operation there, were bidden farewell in a military training centre in Kielce-Bukowka, spokesman for the centre Tadeusz Banaszek said. The soldiers will leave on February 22 and March 1 for a year mission aimed to provide security for local authorities, ensure freedom of traffic in their zone of responsibility, grant support to international units operating in the region and humanitarian assistance and monitor situation there. Their tasks will include an early detection of potential threats. Until December 2004 Poles served there as part of SFOR under the auspices of NATO. SFOR tasks were taken over by EUFOR with the Polish contingent of 280 soldiers.
Torun, Feb.21: The first Spike anti-tank missile was fired at artillery training ground near Torun. The missile costs over 100,000 USD. Polish armed forces will receive 2,675 such guided missiles, model LR Dual, by the year 2013. The missiles can be fired from portable launchers or launchers mounted on Humvee cars and APCs. They have a range of 4 km and penetrate armour 70 cm thick. The missiles come from Israel's Rafael Armament Development Authority and will be partly manufactured in Poland's Mesko SA.
Warsaw, Feb.21: The Polish and Saxonian ministries of economy will jointly monitor the labour market for professionals to facilitate their hiring, deputy minister Jacek Piechota and minister Thomas Jurk agreed. The 2nd Polish-Saxonian Economic Forum will be held in Wroclaw in November, Piechota disclosed. The Forum will offer a plane for establishing contacts between SMEs from Poland and Saxony.
Warsaw, Feb. 21: The sensible part of society should be informed that there is a strong and determined party in the centre of the Polish political scene, the party made up of people who have courage to talk about hard staff and make decisions, leader of the Freedom Union (UW) Wladyslaw Frasyniuk told. He explained that the UW would not disappear from politics but would be transformed into a new party with a new name. Frasyniuk underlined that the founders of the new party should be guided by common values. We have got Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Jerzy Hausner, he is the only politician of the present government who presented a vision of Poland from 2005 to 2015, and he is not a politician for a single term. They both have the guts to propose far-reaching changes, Frasyniuk explained. He stressed that the new party cannot become an election committee for Professor Religa, the possible presidential runner. Frasyniuk explained that a number of people who so far had nothing in common with politics expressed their willingness to join the new party. He added that names of leaders should be known this coming weekend.
Gdansk, Feb. 21: Deputy PM Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, the leader of the Union of Labour (UP), came out for early elections. "(...) I will vote for an early election, i.e. a June one," she said, adding she did not know how other Union of Labour MPs would vote since there was no intraparty debate on this issue. "I agree with the idea that a new cabinet (must have enough time) to draft its own budget (after winning elections)," Jaruga-Nowacka said. "And I will vote accordingly." She also criticised former PM Leszek Miller for leaving for a four-month stay in the USA. "I think he should have given up his parliamentary seat" before leaving, Jaruga-Nowacka said.
Bielsko-Biala, February 15: A renovated exhibition devoted to 60,000 Dutch citizens, mostly Jews murdered in KL Auschwitz will open at the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau in April. Preparation work is underway. Spokesman for the museum Jaroslaw Mensfelt said to-date exhibition in the block 21 had been dismantled. No specifics about the new exhibitions have been released. It is only known that it will be totally changed. The project is being prepared by the Dutch people in cooperation with employees of the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum. The last transport of Jews from Holland that left on September 3, 1944 took Anna Frank, whose diary has turned into one of the most important and compelling testimonies of the Holocaust. Permanent national exhibitions at the museum site have been organised by former inmates with the first being inaugurated in 1960. At present on display are Austrian, Belgian, French, Yugoslavian, Polish, Russian, Hungarian exhibitions as well as those devoted to the Roma people and Jews from Slovakia and the Czech Republic and Jewish struggle and the Holocaust between 1933-1945. The Nazis established Auschwitz death camp in 1940 and killed there at least 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews, Poles, Roma and Soviet POWs.
Warsaw, Feb.21: The general business climate in manufacturing remained unchanged at plus 10 pts in February, according to a monthly poll of firms conducted by GUS Central Statistical Office. "The financial situation of industrial firms can slightly improve in the coming months," GUS wrote in its commentary to the poll. Layoffs can be smaller than anticipated earlier, GUS added. Selling prices on industrial goods will likely grow slightly over the next 3 months, the survey found. The general business climate in retail trade reached minus 9 in February, improving by 1 point in comparison with the January readout, GUS also said. "Trade firms report a considerable deterioration in their current sales," GUS noted. The general business climate in construction was minus 1 in February, down from plus 6 in January, GUS poll revealed. However, an improvement in the orders portfolio was expected in the next 3 months. Forecasts of future production are also optimistic and better than they were last month.
We support Ukraine's aspirations to EU membership - Cimoszewicz
Kiev, Feb.23: Nobody and nothing can change Poland's position that Ukraine has the right and should in future become a member of the EU, Sejm speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz declared here after meeting prime minister Julya Timoshenko. "This calls for a large effort on Ukrainian part but also the need to bring it home to EU member states that such a prospect should be declared" - Cimoszewicz told after meeting Timoshenko. He said his talks also dealt with the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline. Prime minister Marek Belka will come to Kiev on March 3-4 and the matter will then be discussed in detail - Cimoszewicz added. "Poland treats this project as a strategic one" - the Sejm speaker declared. He voiced the hope that there will be companies willing to take part in the implementation of this project and they will come not only from Poland and Ukraine.
Prosecution wants 12 years jail for main defendant in FOZZ case
Warsaw, Feb.23: Public prosecutors demanded 12 years' imprisonment for Grzegorz Zemek, the former head of FOZZ agency responsible for covert buy up of Polish official foreign debt, on charges of embezzlement and financial fraud. For his deputy in FOZZ, Janina Chim, the prosecutors demanded 7 years' jail term. Shorter jail terms are sought for the remaining four defendants in the FOZZ case, the greatest financial scam of the last 15 years still awaiting a court resolution. It is estimated that the state treasury could have lost 354 m PLN (ca. 120 m USD) as a result of illegal operations conducted by FOZZ in the years 1989-1990. The funds earmarked for the debt buyup were transferred to what the prosecutors called "a parade of swindlers", i.e. companies registered in tax havens. Zemek and the other defendants claimed innocence. President Aleksander Kwasniewski said that judges in the FOZZ trial were trying to hand down a binding verdict despite the short time left before the charges come under the statutes of limitations. He termed the defense lawyers' attitude in the case "irresponsible."
FinMin wants to pay off debts to Paris Club in March
Warsaw, Feb. 23: The ministry of finance wants to pay off Poland's debts to the Paris Club member states in cash in late March, deputy minister Wieslaw Szczuka told. The ministry received a formal position on the Polish offer of early repayment of 12.3 bn euros in debts from the secretariat of the Paris Club. The letter is the starting point for talks with individual creditors. The talks should begin in the coming days and end in about two weeks - Szczuka said. "We are not bound by any dates but our proposal calls for (March 31 as the day of repayment). We will try to make good on this proposal" - he said. Szczuka added that the ministry will float more bond issues abroad to raise the money necessary for the financing of the debt repayment operation. No dates for such flotations were fixed yet.
PKN Orlen may have to pay more for Unipetrol
Prague, Feb.23: PKN Orlen may have to pay up to 1.7 bn crowns (ca. 85 m USD) more than expected for the Czech Unipetrol fuel company as a result of the recent surge in its stock market price, Lidove Noviny newspaper wrote. The price went up 20 pc, to 181.2 crowns. As recently as in late December the price was 98. Deputy minister of the state treasury Pavel Kuta did not rule out that the final price to be paid by PKN Orlen would indeed be higher than anticipated. PKN Orlen will be able to take over Unipetrol after a decision from the EU Commission on the absence of legal irregularities in Unipetrol privatisation.
ConocoPhilips in talks with Nafta Polska
Warsaw, Feb.23: Nafta Polska officials met for talks here with ConocoPhilips representatives. The press release after the talks did not say whether they concerned possible investments by the US company in a Polish fuel company. The talks will be continued, press spokesman for NP said after the meeting. ConocoPhilips representatives presented the structure of the company, its results and development strategy, especially in East-Central Europe. NP officials presented the status of work on restructuring and privatisation of the Polish oil sector. NP president Krzysztof Zundul was satisfied with the meeting. I am glad that the Polish oil sector has become interesting for so large investors as ConocoPhilips. I hope that more investors will come here soon - he added.
Lufthansa: 520,000 on Germany-Poland routes
Cracow, Feb. 23: Last year Germany's Lufthansa airline carried over 520,000 passengers between Germany and Poland, a 26-percent rise on the previous year. The rise is mainly the result of new Lufthansa connections to and from major Polish airports. Lufthansa is the biggest foreign air carrier in Poland.
Cigarette smuggling on the rise
Augustow, Feb. 23: Last year Polish customs teams foiled attempts to smuggle 390 million cigarettes into Poland but cigarette smuggling into the country is steadily rising, informed participants in an international conference on illegal tobaccoware in Poland. According to Marek Multan from the finance ministry the sale of the smuggled cigarettes would have cost the state 150 million zlotys (49.8 mn USD). Multan also suggested the formation of mobile control groups to monitor sales of illegal cigarettes.
Slask on European tour
Katowice, Feb. 21: On Thursday Poland's Slask folk song and dance troupe is starting a tour of France, Switzerland and Spain to last until the end of April. Forty concerts are scheduled in France, among others in Lille and Grenoble. No Paris performances are planned despite Slask's successful appearances there in earlier years. Slask will also give two concerts in Geneva and six in Spain. On the Spanish programme is a song about the Madonna of Guadelupe which the troupe will perform in Spanish. To date Slask has given almost 6,000 concerts in 50 countries for an audience of jointly over 20 million. The troupe specializes in Silesian folklore, in its repertoire are also folk songs from other parts of Poland, opera fragments, oratoria as well as classical and sacral material.
PO, PiS, Centrum chanceless in February election
Warsaw, Feb. 23: The Citizens Platform (PO), Law and Justice (PiS) and the Centre Party would not gain a parliamentary majority in a February election, together winning only 209 seats in Poland's 460-seat Sejm, an OBOP survey revealed. According to OBOP PO would get a 23-percent support (113 seats), PiS 15 percent (85 seats) and the Centre Party 5 percent (11 seats). The radical Samoobrona Farmer Party would get 14 percent (70 seats). OBOP ran the poll from February 4 to 8 on a random group of 936 adult Poles.
Kwasniewski, Koehler to discuss EU, NATO in Berlin on Friday
Warsaw, Feb. 24: President Aleksander Kwasniewski will meet with his german counterpart Horst Koehler to discuss European issues, the EU constitution, cross-Atlantic relations and the latest developments in Ukraine at a meeting in Berlin on Friday. On Saturday Kwasniewski will deliver a lecture at the Bertelsmann Foundation and will visit an exhibition titled "Warsaw, the capital of freedom. Warsaw Raising August - October 1944". Undersecretary of state at the Presidential Chancellery responsible for international affairs Andrzej Majkowski told that Kwasniewski-Koehler talk on Friday will cover also the beginning of the Polish-German Year held under the patronage of both countries' presidents and ramifications of the recent NATO summit in Brussels. Addressing some 200 personages of German political and economic life the president will, according to Majkowski, speak about European issues, Ukraine, the future of the EU, the EU-Russia relations, the EU-Ukraine relations and cross-Atlantic relations. While visiting the exhibition devoted to the Warsaw Rising Kwasniewski will be accompanied by Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse.
The exhibition is on display at the site of the German Resistance Movement. Majkowski underlined that this was a historic place, the site where Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg was shot by the firing squad for masterminding and carrying out an abortive assault on Adolf Hitler.
Polish-Ukrainian summit is needed - Cimoszewicz
Kiev, Feb. 24: Ukraine shows a strong will, determination and understanding that the problem of the Polish cemetery in Lvov should be solved for this will have a symbolic meaning, Sejm Speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said after a meeting with President Victor Yushchenko in Kiev on Thursday. He added that there was no deadline set for the official opening of the cemetery but added the opening date was rather close. Cimoszewicz said Yushchenko had presented him with his proposals aimed at finally solving the problem of the cemetery (one of the ailing issues in Polish-Ukrainian border history--ed) but said he would like Yushchenko to announce these initiatives during his meetings with President Aleksander Kwasniewski and PM Marek Belka. Cimoszewicz told that there was a need for Polish-Ukrainian summit meetings patterned after similar meetings practised by Polish leaders and their counterparts in some western European countries. He added his Thursday meeting with Viktor Yushchenko dealt with a summit of Polish and Ukrainian presidents, among other topics, but no date had been discussed.
Speaker: Yushchenko to solve Polish cemetery problem
Kiev, Feb. 24: Ukraine shows a strong will, determination and understanding that the problem of the Polish cemetery in Lvov should be solved for this will have a symbolic meaning, Sejm Speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said after a meeting with President Victor Yushchenko in Kiev on Thursday. He added that there was no deadline set for the official opening of the cemetery but added the opening date was rather close. Cimoszewicz said Yushchenko had presented him with his proposals aimed at finally solving the problem of the cemetery (one of the ailing issues in Polish-Ukrainian border history--ed) but said he would like Yushchenko to announce these initiatives during his meetings with President Aleksander Kwasniewski and PM Marek Belka.
Draft resolution on Yalta wins support of Polish EuroMPs
Warsaw, Feb.24: A draft resolution "On long-term consequences of World War 2", authored by Law and Justice (PiS) MEPs, won support from Polish MEPs from the Citizens Platform (PO), Freedom Union (UW), Samoobrona and Socialdemocracy of Poland (SdPl). It is highly likely that the draft will be supported by the League of Polish Families (LPR) and the Polish Peasant Party (PSL). PiS wants the European Parliament to pass the resolution before May 9, i.e. the ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of allied victory in WW2 in Moscow. The draft encourages the EU Council and the Commission to "support actions that will eliminate the consequences of totalitarian communist rule." According to Pawel Piskorski (PO), the draft emphasizes that "the end of the war did not bring freedom and democracy to all" nations.
UW's Janusz Onyszkiewicz says that the resolution deals with the important question of "enslavement that followed WW2 and affected countries that fell into the Soviet sphere of influence after (the) Yalta (conference." Another UW EMP Bronislaw Geremek stresses that the draft contains "the truth which makes it possible to consolidate democracy also in Russia." Without this truth it is impossible to build any lasting relations in international cooperation, Geremek adds. SdPl's Dariusz Rosati believes that the resolution "does not put anybody in the dock, or open old wounds, but is a reminder of history and the need to tell the truth about history." SLD's Marek Siwiec says that the draft "is true but incomplete." He points out that "the Yalta agreement was not imposed by the Russian side." It was an international agreement adopted by the allies, he notes.
Belka, Spidla to discuss Lisbon, social policy
Warsaw, Feb. 24: Prime minister Marek Belka and EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Vladimir Spidla are scheduled to meet Friday in Warsaw for talks on the Lisbon Strategy and EU social and employment policies. Spidla arrives in Warsaw for a two-day visit to attend a conference on the free flow of ideas organized by the EC and the Polish government.
New group will not be built around UW - Steinhoff
Warsaw, Feb.24: The initiative to create a new political group supported by such well known figures as Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Jerzy Hausner should not be seen as an extension of the Freedom Union (UW), warned the leader of the Centre party Janusz Steinhoff. He admitted there was a chance for uniting various political milieus around a common objective, i.e. creating a joint election ticket. However, Steinhoff wants the names on the ticket to be accompanied by their party affiliations. The Centre party will not give up its own programme or join a centre-left group, Steinhoff added. "We are in talks with UW and other milieus, but this does not mean we expect a full agreement on all issues. Coalitions are acceptable but giving up one's principles is not. We do not blur the differences" - he stressed.
Poland wants to borrow some 400 m euros from EIB
Warsaw, Feb.24: Poland wants to borrow some 400 m euros from the European Investment Bank EBI in the first half of this year, according to Jacek Tomorowicz, head of the foreign policy department at the finance ministry. He said earlier that the ministry could borrow 500 m euros from various international financial institutions this year. Institutions outside the budget sector can be expected to sign credit agreements with international financial institutions, chiefly EIB, worth a total of 2.1 bn euros this year, Tomorowicz also said.
Arras, Feb.28: No decisions on the opening of the French labour market for Poles and on Airbus plane supplies for LOT Polish Airlines came from the French-Polish summit meeting held here Monday. President Aleksander Kwasniewski and his host Jacques Chirac emphasized that the summit was held in an "excellent" atmosphere and the Polish-French relations were very good. "This is not a new subject in our talks," Kwasniewski replied when asked about the Airbus plane issue. He admitted that France encouraged Poland to buy the planes arguing that it was an "European project" and Poland should take part in it. "We must analyse this line of arguments very seriously" - Kwasniewski added. On the labour market opening both presidents referred newsmen to results of work by a special working team set up last November to analyse the opening of the French labour market to Poles. "The team has achieved progress in its work," Chirac said, adding the final results would be known "in two or three months." "The conclusions will be implemented without delay" - Kwasniewski said.
Warswa, Feb. 28: Martin Fedor, Secretary of State at the Defence Ministry of Slovakia on a two-day visit to Poland, met with deputy Defence Minister Janusz Zemke on Monday to discuss questions concerning development of military technological cooperation, the Defence Ministry wrote in a press release. The talks also covered cooperation in scientific research and
problems connected with modernising Soviet-made equipment and armament. Fedor and Zemke also discussed possibilities of cooperation in exports of military equipment and armaments. Two deputy ministers also exchanged experiences connected with the participation of the two countries' troops in the Iraqi mission, with a focus on questions concerning logistics and troops equipment. Zemke acquainted Fedor with the programme and results of modernisation of the Polish Armed Forces. The principles of development of the further military cooperation were agreed. During his stay in Poland, the Slovak guest will also meet the chief of the Polish Army General Staff General Czeslaw Piatas and the Ministry's commissioner for Strategic Defence Review Andrzej Karkoszka. On Tuesday the Slovak official will meet with the under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Labour Krzysztof Krystowski and make a tour of the Military Academy of Technology and other centres of interest to him.
Warsaw, Feb. 28: Poland's currently forming Democratic Party could seal an election alliance with the Social-democracy for Poland (SdPl), SdPl MEP Dariusz Rosati said Monday. Rosati added that he planned to work towards the partnership and did not exclude joining the DP-SdPl faction. On Sunday the Democratic Party founded by deputy PM Jerzy Hausner and Freedom Union (UW) leader Wladyslaw Frasyniuk issued an official political declaration. Asked if he would consider joining DP in future, Rosati said that "everything was possible".
Warsaw, Feb. 28: Young researchers from foreign countries specialising in international relations, sociology, ethnology and social psychology have the opportunity to get scholarships from the Polish government. Candidates for scholarship may send applications to Polish embassies by April 30. This year scholarships are offered to young researchers from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldowa, Afghanistan, Iraq, as well as those from Central Asia and the Caucasian republics, the Foreign Ministry here informed Monday. Scholarships are destined to higher school graduates and last-year students under 35 for nine months of scientific studies in Poland. The studies must concern Polish problems. The application form and full information can be found on the Ministry's website www.msz.gov.pl.(ag )
Warsaw, Feb. 28: Thirty five Polish dairies have been granted certificates by Russian vet authorities under which they are entitled to export their products to Russia, the Agriculture Ministry reported on Monday. Agriculture Minister Wojciech Olejniczak told that the certificates had been granted to the best Polish dairies which could export any amount of milk and other dairy-products. Seventy five Polish dairies were inspected by Russian vets. The inspections ended in early November but the Russian side had not presented the results of the inspection so far.
Warsaw, Feb. 28: The foundation by the EU of a European Research Council to finance basic research dominated a Monday science conference in Warsaw. The meeting, attended by scientists and scholars from several European countries and Poland, was organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and the Federation of European Biochemical Societies. According to current plans the European Research Council would support and oversee basic research in the EU.
Warsaw, Feb. 28: An exhibition of photographs and artefacts opening in Warsaw Tuesday inaugurates the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity Independent, Self-Governed Trade Union (NSZZ Solidarnosc). Sixty photographs from the 1980s, some of them never published before, are on show in the Museum of Wola, illustrating the events connected with the Solidarity movement against the communist regime, such as strikes, martial law, the killing of Solidarity priest Father Jerzy Popieluszko, and the Round Table negotiations of 1989. On show are also posters issued by the communist authorities glorifying the economic and political successes of the former People's Poland. The visitors can also see posters and leaflets printed by the underground Solidarity.
Los Angeles, Feb. 28: Jan A. P. Kaczmarek, a Polish composer living and working in Los Angeles, received the 77th annual Academy Award for the original score for "Finding Neverland", at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday. "Finding Neverland" directed by Marc Forster is a tale of magic and fantasy inspired by the life of James Barrie, the real-life author of the children's classic Peter Pan. Kaczmarek is a composer with a tremendous international reputation that continues to grow. He achieved recognition as a film composer with his scores for "Total Eclipse", "Bliss", "Washington Square", "Aimie & Jaguar", "The Third Miracle", "Lost Souls" and "Quo Vadis".
Warsaw, Feb.25: The summit will be "the first opportunity for a global discussion of bilateral Polish-French affairs," according to undersecretary of state at the presidential chancellery responsible for international affairs Andrzej Majkowski. He told that the Aleksander Kwasniewski-Jacques Chirac summit, to be held in Arras near Lille on Monday, will be also attended by the following cabinet ministers: Adam Rotfeld (foreign affairs), Ryszard Kalisz (internal affairs), Jerzy Hausner (economy and labour), Wojciech Olejniczak (agriculture), Miroslaw Gronicki (finance), Krzysztof Opawski (infrastructure), Jaroslaw Pietras (EU). The ministers will hold talks with their French opposite numbers and then present the agreed points at a plenary session. The two presidents will also have a meeting "in a small circle". The whole cycle will take 5.5 hours. Chirac and the French cabinet ministers held similar meetings with their British, Italian and Spanish counterparts in the past. The Arras summit will be first such an occasion for Polish politicians. It is expected that the Polish-French summits will be henceforth held every six months. Majkowski said that "global, regional and specific issues will certainly come up for discussion. The French are sure to raise the Airbus issue."
Warsaw, Feb. 27: Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski in Berlin Saturday rallied for German support of Ukraine's EU ambitions in an address to members of the prestigious German Bertelsmann Foundation. EU relations with Ukraine and Russia also dominated Kwasniewski's Friday talks with German president Horst Koehler. In his address to the Bertelsmann Foundation Kwasniewski also announced a Polish "packet for Ukraine" involving counselling on European policy matters. Commenting Ukraine's relations with NATO Kwasniewski voiced hopes that the Alliance will "consider possibilities of deepening relations with Ukraine". We should strive to sustain and respect NATO. NATO has proven itself in our case by giving us an authentic sense of security - the president said. German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder recently criticized NATO for its reluctance against political debate and proposed reforming the Alliance. He also appealed to the German elites for "solidarity" in debates on the 2007-2013 EU budget. In this sphere I would not like to see (...) thriftiness take the better of European visions - Kwasniewski said. The German government has demanded restrictions of the EU budget to 1 percent of the EU members' GDPs, Poland supports the EC's plan to set the budget at 1.24 percent. Referring to recent debates around the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, Kwasniewski warned against propagating "historical amnesia" and "attempts to manipulate historical facts".
Warsaw, Feb. 27: A visit to an exhibition devoted to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising in Berlin's German Resistance Museum Saturday ended Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski's brief working visit in Germany. After viewing the exhibits Kwasniewski thanked the German authorities and the display's organizers for "enabling the Germans, especially the younger generations, a closer view of Poland's and Warsaw's tragic 20th-century history". Bundestag chairman Wolfgang Thierse, who accompanied Kwasniewski, said the exhibition "reminded about a bitter chapter in Polish-German relations". It is important for Germans to know much more about Polish history - Thierse said. Museum director Joachim Tuchel told that the exhibition evoked "growing interest" among the German public, especially youth.
Warsaw, Feb. 27: Deputy PM Jerzy Hausner and Freedom Union (UW) leader Wladyslaw Frasyniuk have decided to found a new centre-left group under the name Democratic Party. The new grouping will probably be called to life at the Freedom Union's April congress. People want change, not revolution. Poles don't want to bear the brunt of another political hullaballoo, they want a strong, thrifty state that won't come peeking into their wallets and under their beds - Frasyniuk said. UW member Tadeusz Mazowiecki said the new party would be addressed to the centre-left "but not to populists". Hausner added that the Democratic Party planned to opt for parliament's dissolution and a June election date.
Luxembourg may open labour market in 2006
Warsaw, Feb. 25: Luxembourg may lift labour restrictions for new EU members in 2006, secretary general at Luxembourg's foreign ministry Georges Santer said Friday in Warsaw after a meeting with members of the Polish parliamentary and Senate EU Committees. I hope that two years after (enlargement) we will have the courage to say that Luxembourg doesn't need this transition (in free employment), Santer told Polish MPs. Santer assured that during its presidency of the EU (January to June) Luxembourg will strive for enlargements of the EU budget above 1 percent of the Union's GDP. He also warned that there were "many hard problems" for the EU to deal with in coming months and that the work schedule was "very tight". Santer was less specific about opening Luxembourg's services market for Poles, and reminded that in this respect Luxembourg, France and Belgium feared an influx of foreign subscribers to their generous social aid systems. In this connection he also declared that certain clauses of the Poland-backed EU Bolkenstein Directive foreseeing a Unionwide service market would have to be "reconsidered". Santer also announced plans to launch access talks with Croatia, improve dialogue with Russia and restore good relations with the U.S.
'Equal' programme will help create jobs in Poland
Warsaw, Feb.25: Some 2,000 local job-promoting projects will be implemented in the EU countries under the Equal programme, including 107 in Poland. The smallest of the Polish projects is worth 200,000 euros, the largest one - over 5 m euros, deputy minister of economy and labour Marek Szczepanski said at an international conference devoted to 'Equal' and held here Friday. The projects deal with such topics as assistance to prison leavers and the disabled, retraining of former soldiers, assistance to Roma people in the job market, counteracting women's discrimination at work. The projects will be implemented using funding from the EU (134 m euros) and the state budget (45 m euros). The EU Commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities Vladimir Szpidla emphasized at the conference that projects under 'Equal' "are born locally, not at some official's desk."
Based on the service of the Polish Press Agency (PAP)
More information is available at the website– http://www.pap.com.pl