Meeting with Ambassadors: Poland

These and other questions were discussed by the ambassador of Poland, Marek Wladyslaw Prawda, Stephen Bastos, expert on Poland of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and author Stefanie Peter, former director of the Kopernikus foundation for German-Polish Cultural Relations on September 25th, 2008, in the context of the “Meeting with Ambassadors” located at DGAP. The Meeting with Ambassadors is a cooperation of the Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg with the DGAP which takes place every month.

The rapid political reforms in Poland have caused fears for many people, in particular of a social decent, ambassador Prawda said. Nevertheless, other groups such as farmers have recognised that the entry of Poland to the European Union has implicated a number of advantages. According to ambassador Prawda, one must give the biggest country which has entered EU in 2004 more time for the modernization and democratisation of the political structures.

The process of the reconciliation and rapprochement to Germany has made great progress, said DGAP-expert Stephen Bastos. But there is still a “big disbalance” in the German-Polish relations. “Poles certainly know what happens in Germany, while Germans usually ignore what takes place in Poland.” For one year a positive trend in the field of domestic policy has emerged. “The government of Tusk has the necessary popularity to tackle also difficult reforms, like those of the health system”, Bastos said.

“Today there is much more space for cultural forms of expression”, said Stefanie Peter. The expert on Poland has observed that more and more Polish artists and filmmakers are represented at German festivals. Especially the cultural-creative are those who attend the reform process in the country critically and deal with it in an artificial manner.

Since January 2007 Inforadio Berlin-Brandenburg records the radio broadcast “Weltsichten. Inforadio ganz international – Die Botschaftermatinee”. Every four weeks, Sabine Porn welcomes a different German-speaking ambassador and two other guests and talks about the country as well as its people, politics, culture and history. The next event will take place on October 23rd. The issue will be Great Britain.