Polish Consulate...

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

posted by: Oborski at 21:41 | link | comments |

By Sławomir Majman

Could one ever imagine a better international treaty than this:
First of all, it contains the superpowers' guarantees of security for a medium-sized country.
Secondly, it expresses the superpowers' desire for that country to be free, strong, independent and democratic.
Thirdly, it gives that country a significantly enlarged territory by incorporating new, industrial regions into it.
Fourthly, it guarantees that country, until now torn by disputes with ethnic minorities, national homogeneity within the new borders.

posted by: Oborski at 09:47 | link | comments |

Polish public opinion is outraged by a statement released by Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who accuse Poland and other countries of questioning the achievements of the Yalta Conference. The statement has exacerbated the discussion about the legitimacy of Polish participation in Moscow celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Feb. 18 Aleksander Kwaśniewski confirmed his intention to attend the ceremony in Moscow May 9. The president stated that if this had been the celebration of the anniversary of the signing of the Yalta Pact, he would not have taken part. According to Kwaśniewski, the claim contained in the statement by Russian diplomats, that Yalta was the beginning of a democratic Europe, was "far from the historical truth."

posted by: Oborski at 09:45 | link | comments |

posted by: Oborski at 18:39 | link | comments |

This week...

The Polish version of Newsweek says that contrary to gloomy predictions, the young Polish generation is far from lost...

They have ideals and want to reform their country. Rather than partying, the present 20 to 30 year olds seem to prefer organizing associations called Stop Corruption or Fair Play. They want to turn Poland into a normal country and are convinced that they will succeed. Barely three years ago, sociologists and the media called them an all- play, no-revolt generation. Indeed, there was not much they could rebel against. The time of great economic change in Poland created wonderful oppotunities and career prospects for young, educated people who soon became fond of their designer clothes, mobiles and cars. But suddenly, the career channels got clogged. Staggering unemployment made them realize that not everything is within their reach. They saw corruption and old-boy’s networks at all levels of government. The young felt pushed to the sidelines and decided to do something about this, says Newsweek presenting a battle for new Poland waged by Poles in their 20s.

The lay catholics weekly Tygodnik Powszechny is convinced that Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski should go to Moscow for ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the end of Word War II...

The weekly joins a discussion sparked off by Moscow’s recent statement that the 1945 Yalta agreement signed by the US, Britain and the former Soviet Union enabled the existence of free democratic Poland. "We will hear such nonsense many times yet," says Tygodnik Powszechny. For Poland, post-Yalta realities meant several decades of communist oppression and domination by the Soviet Union. But we should not get irritated by Moscow’s campaign, which is aimed at building a new identity for Russia based on a distorted vision of the past. Ever since Poland got engaged in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the Kremlin has spared no effort to make Poland look like a fiercely anti-Russian country. We have to counter-act this idea and go to Moscow for the May celebration and realize our goals, Tygodnik Powszechny writes.

Wprost claims that one in five treatments and surgeries carried out in Poland are unnecessary or risky...

But few people get to know this fact and if they do it is mainly by accident, when complications arise or when the patient seeks additional medical consultation. Thirty year old Dorota Krzyżaniak from Warsaw complained to a patients’ association that a doctor talked her into an unnecessary and costly operation for back pain. A neurologist told her later that a less expensive and less painful rehabilitation would help her just as well. Unnecessary surgeries are an effective way of draining money from the National Health Fund, Wprost says. According to relevant statistics, the Caesarian operation is used with no real need in more than 60 percent of Polish women, the appendix is removed unnecessarily in 10 to 25 percent of patients. Nowhere in the world have such practices been completely eliminated. But abuses will be numerous in the Polish health care sector until clear medical standards are introduced and a genuine reform is conducted, Wprost argues.

And,finally, Polityka informs that Polish Peasant Party MPs are fond of tourism...

– this in connection with their recent trip to the Congo. Responding to critical opinions on such tourism, the cost of which is born by taxpayers, one of the MPs, Stefan Jakimiuk, retorted: "What is more rational and cheaper – to send two deputies abroad or to send a whole army contingent, as in the case of Iraq?" And what did the MPs do in distant Congo? They brought a copy of the Polish constitiution translated into French. So much for the pleasures of being a parliamentary deputy.

See these magazines here:
www2.tygodnik.com.pl/
http://polityka.onet.pl/
http://newsweek.redakcja.pl/
www.wprost.pl/

posted by: Oborski at 16:28 | link | comments |

Website set to help Polish visitors...

An online service has been launched to give Polish people visiting the Wyre Forest a warm welcome.

The website, together with a poster campaign, has been launched to let young people coming into the area know about the resources available at Kidderminster's Polish Consulate, the Polish church and Polish Club.

The bilingual website is specifically targeted at young Poles to provide them with information, news and assistance.

Councillor Mike Oborski, who is the West Midlands representative for the Consul of the Republic of Poland, said: "There has been a Polish community in Kidderminster since just after the Second World War.

"Although it had been dwindling in recent years, it has increased in the last 12 months thanks to an influx of 200 young Polish people who have come here to fill jobs that need particular skills or where there is a shortage of labour.

"Many of them want to improve their English and earn a bit of money while seeing a bit of the world.

"We're working together to give them support and access to local information so they are better equipped for their stay here."

The bilingual website is specifically targeted at young Poles to provide them with information, news and assistance.

"Many of them want to improve their English and earn a bit of money while seeing a bit of the world.

"We're working together to give them support and access to local information so they are better equipped for their stay here."

posted by: Oborski at 11:55 | link | comments |

Warsaw, Feb.21: The results of Spanish referendum on the EU constitution are an argument for holding the Polish referendum together with elections, according to PM Marek Belka. "A joint voting will offer a better chance for high turnout," Belka explained. The Spanish turnout was 42 pc, too small to make the referendum binding in Poland where at least 50 pc eligible voters must come to the polls. "The Spanish result shows that even in a country where almost all political parties are for the adoption of the EU constitution the turnout can be not high enough to make the referendum binding in the Polish situation," Belka told.

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: Wieslaw Zapedowski has been appointed a new deputy Agriculture Minister. On behalf of PM Marek Belka the nomination was handed over to him by deputy Agriculture Minister Jerzy Pilarczyk, the ministry reported in a statement. Zapedowski will be responsible for work of two departments: the department of the EU and International Cooperation and the department of the common organisation of agricultural markets. He will supervise the implementation in the country of the EU Common Agricultural Policy and participation in the work of EU bodies and other international organisations. Between 1996 and 2003 he worked at Poland's Permanent Mission at UN and other international organisations in Geneva.

Warsaw, Feb. 21: The bygone year was good for the Polish prosecution, PM Marek Belka said after an annual meeting with justice minister Andrzej Kalwas and prosecutors. Belka said most prosecutors at the session stressed the importance of separating their work from politics, especially keeping the prosecution free from political pressure. Separating the prosecution from politics means much more than separating procedures. It means freedom from pressure (...) and manipulation, Belka said. Belka also spoke out for the introduction of office terms for prosecutors, explaining this would "help avoid personal purges each time government changes". Kalwas suggested introducing stricter disciplinary measures for neglect of court duties.

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.

Warsaw, Brussels, Feb. 21: Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Truszczynski said turnout in the referendum on EU Constitutional Treaty in Spain was slightly disillusioning but the relation between the treaty advocates and adversaries was "proper." Truszczynski said that low turnout showed that the level of emotions the topic aroused was not sufficient for the Spaniards to go to the polls. The referendum was not treated as a sort of breakthrough, something to which a firm "yes" or "no" should be said, he explained. Low turnout may undermine the result of the referendum, said Polish Member of the European Parliament Jacek Saryusz-Wolski. It is a lesson for Poland, he said. The Spanish information campaign was too short and superficial and people did not understand the meaning of the constitution. Deputy President of the European Parliament Janusz Onyszkiewicz said turnout "was relatively not bad" as fears about it being very low had been voiced for a long time. Jerzy Klich, another Polish MEP was positively surprised by high turnout in the referendum. However, the referendum results would not be a turning point in the debate on the EU constitution, he said.

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

posted by: Oborski at 00:47 | link | comments |

The most famous Polish ski resort of Zakopane has for decades attracted artists looking for inspiration there. One of them was Karol Szymanowski - probably second best known Polish composer of classical music after Frederic Chopin. Join Danusia Szafraniec on a tour of his villa "Atma" in Zakopane.

posted by: Oborski at 16:12 | link | comments |

Radio Polonia Reports...
European heads of state want Poland to buy Airbus...

Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder sent a joint letter to Polish prime minister Marek Belka, demanding that Poland should buy the European airplanes Airbus for the national airlines LOT. According to the opinion-making daily Rzeczpospolita this is not the first such attempt within the recent weeks. LOT is expected to order a number of new planes in order to replace those which have been transferred to its newly formed no-frills airline Centralwings. The two possible candidates are Boeing which offers its state-of-the-art airplane which is not yet in production and the European consortium Airbus. LOT has used only Boeing airplanes for several years. Parts for Boeing as well as for Airbus planes are produced in Poland, both companies propose an increase of cooperation if their offer is selected. Final decision is expected within the next four months.

posted by: Oborski at 16:07 | link | comments |

District Prosecutors have accused police chiefs of responsibility for a badly organized operation in which two policemen were killed and a dozen suffered injuries. Three police officers – including a former Warsaw police deputy chief and former anti-terrorist unit head – were charged in connection with the operation in a Warsaw suburb of Magdalenka in March 2003. Police anti-terrorist units attacked a house in which two dangerous gangsters were hiding. One policeman was killed by a mine. Another died in hospital a week later. Sixteen officers were injured, before the two gangsters were killed.

posted by: Oborski at 16:11 | link | comments |

Poland’s central bank president Leszek Balcerowicz is listed by New York Times as a serious candidate for the president of the World Bank, one of the most powerful financial organizations. The term of the current president James D. Wolfensohn ends this year. As Poland’s finance minister and deputy foreign minister in the 1990s, Leszek Balcerowicz oversaw a sweeping program of economic reform. This shock therapy ensured Poland’s successful transitition to market economy. - Read Radio Polonia Report here

posted by: Oborski at 16:06 | link | comments |

Protests of health care workers continue in several hospitals in Poland but hunger strikes have been suspended. The protests were sparked off by the threat of employee wages being seized as part of hospital debt collection. Strikes, sit-ins and pickets are unlikely to end despite the justice minister’s appeal to debt collectors to refrain from action until the civil code is amended. Neither the appeal nor the earlier decision of the parliament to vote down a government bill on restructuring health care centres ended the protests. Health care workers regard these steps as superficial and pledge to remain on guard until a law is passed resolving the problems of the debt-ridden sector.

posted by: Oborski at 16:04 | link | comments |

Polish experts excavating in the southern city of Luxor have discovered three ancient Coptic manuscripts in a pharaonic tomb, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities announced. The find was the single most important Coptic discovery since 1945 when a pair of Bedouins stumbled onto the Coptic codices in Nag Hammadi in Egypt's western desert, it said. The manuscripts date to the sixth century and were concealed in a Middle Kingdom (2000-1800 BC) tomb in Luxor, about 710 kilometres south of Cairo, the council said. The texts may have been hidden there by Christians who were being persecuted at the time by the Romans, it said. One of the manuscripts was 22.5 centimetres by 17 centimetres (nine by seven inches) and three centimetres (an inch) thick, explained the Council's head, Zahi Hawas. The second had 50 pages and a cover made of skin adorned with ornaments, while the third also had 50 pages and a cover, but was in a poorer state, he added. Hawas said experts would restore the manuscripts and try to read them in the hope that it would shed more light on early Christianity. ----- See Radio Polonia Report

posted by: Oborski at 15:52 | link | comments |

Foreign minister Adam Rotfeld has said that Poland will continue to support Ukraine in its strivings to join European and NATO structures. Minister Rotfeld held talks in Warsaw today with Ukrainian foreign minister Borys Tarasiuk.
Poland will suggest to the EU member states to adopt its visa regime towards Ukraine. Under this scheme Polish visas for Ukrainian are free, while Poles can enter Ukraine without visas.
Minister Tarasiuk expressed the conviction that the protracted conflict over a Polish cemetery in Lvov will be resolved this year. Buried at the cemetery are soldiers who defended Lvov when it was a part of Poland before the war. The monument is, however, seen by many Ukrainians as a symbol Poland’s aspirations to dominate their nation in the past.

posted by: Oborski at 21:31 | link | comments |

Radio Polonia reports...

Cimoszewicz: Jewish organisations should have a say in restitution...

Parliamentary speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz has stressed that Jewish organizations should have a say on a law concerning the restitution of property seized from Jews during and after the war. Cimoszewicz met with a delegation of the World Jewish Association in Warsaw today to discuss a draft restitution law adopted by the government last Tuesday. He promised that he will present the Association’s opinions to Polish deputies as soon as the draft reaches the parliament.
The government decided that compensation, in cash, for lost property will amount to 15 percent of its value.

posted by: Oborski at 21:26 | link | comments |

Poland’s president Aleksander Kwasniewski has confirmed that he will attend events marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II to be held in Moscow on May 9th. The opposition called on the president to boycott the ceremonies after Russia said the 1945 Yalta Treaty marked the beginning of democratic Europe. Kwaśniewski said that this view is far from true. He recalled, however, that the Yalta Treaty, which placed Poland in the Soviet sphere of influence, was signed also by Britain and the United States. He added that Poland and other East European states expect the European Union to come up with a statement on the post-Yalta realities. Kwasniewski believes that the debate on World War II should not concentrate only on political aspects, which overshadow the sacrifice of simple Soviet soldiers who liberated Poland from Nazi German occupation.
After the war Poland power in Poland was seized by the communist backed by Stalin. Thousands of Poles were killed or deported to Siberia. The era of communist oppression came to an end only in the early 90s. --- Find this story at Radio Polonia

posted by: Oborski at 17:10 | link | comments |

Do Not Eat In Europe – cries out the weekly Wprost in its cover story slamming the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union...

It says ironically that the European system of subsidies is as effective as the centrally planned economy was in the former Soviet Union and the result are exorbitant food prices. The EU’s biggest lie is the claim that without subsidies the farm sector would collapse. Examples of Australia, Argentina and New Zealand show, however, that farmers can earn a good living without subsidies and other forms of protection. Representatives of such big organizations as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the OECD argue that the common agricultural policy does more harm than good. Tales of German farmers coming to demonstrations to defend the subsidy scheme in Mercedes cars are, unfortunately true. The EU guarantees 40 percent of farmers’ income. Seventy percent of all EU aid reaches 20 percent of the richest farmers, Wprost writes.

Newsweek reports that the world’s best computer specialists hail from Warsaw...

There are millions of computers and computer experts at hundreds of universities around the world. But our future is programmed in just a few places – such as Stanford University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Few people know that there is also Warsaw University on the leaders’ list. This year its Information Technology Department is set to outdistance its big American rivals – not in terms of equipment and number of students but in the level of scientific knowledge represented by its students and graduates. Among them is 23 year old Tomek Czajka, currently working on his PhD at Purdue University in Indiana. He has won the prestigious Top Coder contest for the past three years. Other Polish contestants are also doing fine. In the Top Coder ranking, Poland is second best, after the United States. This is attributed to our long tradition of outstanding achievements in mathematics, experts say.

Poland’s first public hearing on whether to legalize possession of soft drugs for personal use has revealed deep, age-related divisions, writes Polityka...

The older generation is mainly against, young people argue that there is no medical evidence that marihuana is more dangerous than alcohol. Poland’s law on combating drug addiction was amended in the year 2000. The law makers decided that possession of a small amount of drugs for personal use should be banned. In 2000, the police detained around 3,000 persons for possession of drugs. In 2004, the figure rose to 26,000. But were these people drug dealers? Not necessarily, says Polityka. Out of thousands of people detained, only a fraction actually land up behind bars. Drug dealers are careful not to get caught. The repressive law affects mainly users, without producing the beneficial result of reducing accessibility of drugs, the weekly claims.

And the weekly Przekroj informs that a controversial German scientist wants to open a center for embalming human bodies in the western Polish locality of Sieniawa...

The snag is that the bodies are not used as educational aids but as exhibits. The idea has shocked the local people. But they may change their mind as the scientist will give jobs to 300 workers. Gunther von Hagen owns a patent on replacing bodily fluids with other substances, such as silicone. He travels with his exhibition “Body Worlds” which – no matter how shocking – is a real crowd puller.

posted by: Oborski at 17:08 | link | comments |

The latest statistical figures give an encouraging picture of the employment scene in Poland. Coupled with falling inflation, this could prompt the rate-setting Monetary Policy Council to cut interest rates. Slawek Szefs examines the statistics.

posted by: Oborski at 13:33 | link | comments |

Professor Leon Kieres, the head of the National Remembrance Institute investigating Nazi and communist crimes, has apologized for the recent leak of the so-called Wildstein list. Kieres told the Parliament that it was a major blow to him. He apologized for letting the Institute to be used to create an uncomfortable and often even dramatic situation for many people. The list, revealed by journalist Bronisław Wildstein, contains names of communist era secret police officers and informers mingled with those of innocent people. ----- Find this Radio Polonia story here

posted by: Oborski at 13:27 | link | comments |

A member of parliament, who was arrested, will not be able to claim a half of his pay. The Parliament voted down an amendment of the Senate, which wanted arrested MPs to receive 4,5 thousand zlotys, over 1,000 euros, a month. The head of the parliamentary regulations committee Waclaw Martyniuk said more should be expected from a deputy than the average citizen. Therefore, the deputy should not have a right to a half of his pay, like average arrested citizens do.
The amendment was adopted after the arrest of a leftist MP Andrzej Pęczak, who had demanded the ability to perform his duties from behind bars.

posted by: Oborski at 13:24 | link | comments |

140 tenants have been evacuated from a high rise apartment block in the southern city of Bielsko-Biala. Fire broke out in an apartment on the sixth floor, caused by a faulty television set. 13 persons, including a 4 year old boy, suffered a mild monoxide poisoning. Their condition is good.
Fires in high-rise blocks are particularly dangerous because of large amounts of smoke which is released, fire fighters say. ----- This story is here on Radio Polonia

posted by: Oborski at 13:21 | link | comments |

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.

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

Warsaw, Feb. 15: The Sejm Speaker said the Polish president should be present in Moscow on May 9 during ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two since "we are dealing here with a symbolic commemoration of victory over Nazism." "The fact that not in all countries victory over Hitlerism, over Nazism, meant only joy, that it was also linked with Soviet occupation, as in case of the Baltic republics, and the domination of the USSR in case of many other countries, including Poland, is another question. No one will commemorate this in Moscow but recall the victory over one of the most criminal systems in the history of human kind and that is where everyone should be..." Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz told. The speaker also stressed that the anniversary is a good occasion to "honestly" talk about history.

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.

posted by: Oborski at 19:24 | link | comments |

From Warsaw Voice...

"A Jaguar is an excellent car for a couple on a date, but not for me. Even getting into it is a huge problem: the cramped conditions are unacceptable."
-Father Henryk Jankowski, former parish priest at St. Bridget's in Gdańsk, renowned for his penchant for luxury, on his attachment to his Mercedes

"Looking at the cult of the pope with an atheist's eye is just as legal as a zealot's ecstasy."
-Jerzy Urban, editor-in-chief of the provocative NIE weekly, in a statement during his court trial for defaming Pope John Paul II in an article

"The European Parliament is demoralizing: I really don't have much to do there."
-Wojciech Wierzejski, a European Parliament member from the League of Polish Families (LPR), on his plans to return to the Polish political stage

"I'd like to have a device for erasing my memory, just like in the movie Men in Black. One flash and I would no longer remember I've been a deputy, a minister, or even a politician."
-A dream of Mariusz Łapiński, former health minister dismissed in a cloud of scandal and kicked out of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), later accused of involvement in scandals linked with the pharmaceutical market

"The most appreciated plays are those implying that dying in defense of the homeland is our favorite form of entertainment."
-Andrzej Mleczko, a draftsman-satirist, on the Poles' artistic taste

"We offer an official note from a drunk tank, which, according to sociologists, is the most convincing excuse for an absence."
-An ad from a Russian company offering services for cheating husbands in need of a credible alibi

posted by: Oborski at 13:44 | link | comments |

In light of increasing deterioration on the political left as well as marked radicalization of some rightist groupings, liberal politicians linked with parties including the Freedom Union (UW) are planning to found a new centrist grouping.

A group of politicians representing several different groups signed a joint political declaration on Feb. 13. The new initiative, however, may be difficult to implement.

posted by: Oborski at 13:40 | link | comments |

The King and I...

Radio Polonia Letter from Poland By Peter Gentle....

The news that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are to get married in April didn’t just make the front pages of the British newspapers (and the second, third, forth, fifth and sixth pages and a double page center spread); it was international news. So how did Poles take the news?

Well, Poles reacted much like the Brits did, minus all that stuff the British newspapers have been banging on about, like ‘the Constitution’ and ‘the role of the Monarchy in the 21st century’ and ‘How much are we tax-payers coughing up for that shower, anyway?’

posted by: Oborski at 21:57 | link | comments |

50% personal income tax abolished...

The Constitutional Tribunal decided that the way a new 50% income tax was introduced in December 2004 was unconstitutional. The session was uneventful in the extreme as the government responsible for the new legislation refused to defend the new law. The new tax rate was to be applied to income exceeding 600 thousand zloty or 200 thousand US dollars yearly. The Tribunal questioned only a part of the tax bill, the remaining parts remain in force.

posted by: Oborski at 21:52 | link | comments |

A question which is asked by all Polish politicians this week is: should president Kwasniewski go to Moscow in May to attend ceremonies marking the victory of the Soviet Red Army over Nazi Germany. The debate follows the publication of a statement in which the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned attempts by Poland and other countries to, as it put it, ‘corrupt the results of the Yalta Conference’. Michał Kubicki has more.

In its statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that at the Yalta Conference the allied powers, including the Soviet Union, reiterated their support for a strong, free, sovereign and democratic Poland. According to Moscow, by criticizing the outcome of Yalta, Poles are re-writing World War Two history and are taking historical events out of their context in an ‘unhonest’ way. What the Poles know all too well is that shortly before World War Two broke out, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Russia signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, agreeing to split Poland between them. And at the Yalta Conference, Stalin, who had already installed a provisional government in Poland, insisted that the borders of Poland would be to his liking.

posted by: Oborski at 17:46 | link | comments |

Warsaw, Feb. 14: PM Marek Belka and his Latvian counterpart Aigars Kalvitis agreed after talks in Warsaw that there are no problems in Polish-Latvian contacts neither on the political nor on the economic plane. At a joint press conference Belka stressed that the two countries have common interests, mainly connected with the participation in the EU. He also stressed that the two countries favourably develop trade contacts, yet Polish firms do not invest in Latvia while Latvian enterprises want to do so in Poland. Kalvitis invited Polish businessmen to invest in his country and stressed that Latvian firms are ready to participate in privatisation in Poland. Two Latvian firms are interested in the pharmaceutical market and privatisation of Polmos alkohol producer in Bialystok, north-east Poland. The PM’s also discussed the project of building the Amber Pipe gas pipeline. It envisages that a branch of the Yamal-Europe pipeline supplying Russian gas to Western Europe would run through Baltic republics to Poland. The EC continues to examine also other projects. Belka and Kalvitis discussed the idea to build a joint power systems between the Baltic states and Poland. The talks also concerned cooperation in negotiations on the EU budget for 2007-2013. Kalvitis stressed the importance of Polish-Latvian cooperation in negotiations on the future EU budget and of encouraging other states of the region, including Scandinavian countries, to join efforts to this end. The PM’s talks also covered the EU neighbourhood policy, including joint initiatives concerning Ukraine. This policy should not ignore Belarus, Moldova, the Caucasian republics and the Kaliningrad region. The Latvian PM and President Aleksander Kwasniewski discussed Polish-Latvian cooperation and pointed to the good state of bilateral contacts. The talks also covered cooperation in the region and joint actions within the EU and NATO. Tuesday, the second day of the Latvian PM's visit is to be of a private character.

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.

posted by: Oborski at 16:32 | link | comments |

President of the Republic of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski visited USA...
Washington February 8-9^th, 2005-02-14

President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Ambassador Przemysław Grudziński,
Minister of Foreign Afffairs Adam Daniel Rotfeld

The President of the Republic of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski visited United States. During his two day visit he met with President George W. Bush, members of the Congress and representatives of the administration. The Presidents discussed important international policy and policy related to bilateral relationship. Topics related to Iraq and Ukraine were analyzed. Both parties expressed their mutual desire to continue the stabilization mission in Iraq until its completion. President Bush underlined the important role President Kwaśniewski played in solving the problem of Ukraine elections and the possibility of further cooperation in creating the policy toward that country. They discussed the planned trip of the President of United States to Europe. The visa waver program was also a topic of the talks. “Policy of the country has been under review for a while, and now we've got a way forward to make trips to America easier for Polish citizens” stated the American President. A “road map” was adopted showing the goals to be achieved on the road to add Poland to the 27 countries exempt from US visa requirements. The Presidents talked about the transatlantic relationships and the need for closer cooperation. President Bush declared financial assistance for the Polish army from the “solidarity initiative” fund.
President Aleksander Kwaśniewski met with Mayor of Washington Mr. Anthony A. Williams who presented the President with the “Key to the City”. Before his departure the Polish President presented Peter Nowak DC United coach with the Knights Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for his achievements.

posted by: Oborski at 10:50 | link | comments |

Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka has said it would be inappropriate to comment on all ‘bizarre’ statements made by Russia, such as the latest one on Yalta released by the Russian Foreign Ministry two days ago. The statement says that at the Yalta Conference 60 years ago the allied powers reiterated their support for a strong, free, sovereign and democratic Poland, whose security was guaranteed not only by the United States and Britain but also by the Soviet Union. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, by criticizing the outcome of Yalta Poles are re-writing World War Two history and are taking historical events out of their context in an ‘unhonest’ way.
Prime minister Belka stressed that the presence of Polish politicians at the Moscow celebrations of the end of the Second World War does not mean that Poland changes its assessment of Yalta and the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact.
The Mayor of Warsaw Lech Kaczyński, who is also a leader of the opposition Law and Justice Party, has said that president Aleksander Kwaśniewski should not go to Moscow for the May celebrations.
Mr Kaczyński stressed that the liberation of Central Europe from fascism was inseparably linked with the imposition of Moscow’s rule over this part of the continent. According to the Mayor of Warsaw, the anniversary of the victory over fascist Germany is surely worth celebrating, but not as an anniversary of the liberation of Central Europe. For Poland, the end of World War Two meant the beginning of the period of the far-reaching dependance on Soviet Russia and a wave of terror aimed at the most patriotic groups of Polish society.
The Polish Foreign Ministry has said it will not issue any official communique on the Russian Ministry’s statement.

posted by: Oborski at 20:43 | link | comments |

Until the fall of communism Valentine's Day was totally unknown in Poland. Now, wherever you go, you are surrounded by heart-shaped cookies, piles of Valentine cards and other plentiful evidence of what a money-spinner the day is for some. So is it about love at all? Here's what ordinary Poles tell Michal Zajac.

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Polish leftist leaders have made conflicting statements concerning the election schedule for this year. Poles are to elect both a new Parliament and president this year, and possibly also take part in a referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty. Prime Minister Marek Belka, Parliamentary Speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz as well as leaders of the governing Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) parliamentary caucus argue that the Parliament should dissolve itself and thus pave the way for elections in June. In a radio interview, SLD leader Jozef Oleksy critisized the Speaker’s decision to table a dissolution motion as ‘a political move’.
According to many observers, SLD, which has suffered a severe slide in popularity due to a string of high-profile allegations of corruption, has opted for a September ballot so as to allow time to recover flagging support. The latest popularity polls show that the SLD has virtually no chance to extend its rule. The centrist liberal Civic Platform, the rightist Law and Order and the nationalist Leaque of Polish Families are the top three parties.

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Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has told his Polish counterpart Marek Belka in Warsaw that opening Ireland’s job market to Poles has ‘worked out well’ for both countries.
Addressing a press conference, he said his country had a large increase in the number of Polish people who have settled in Ireland since Poland joined the EU eight months ago. Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka said he hoped that the ‘good example and experience of Ireland would make other countries, such as France and Spain, reconsider their decisions and suspend or perhaps forget altogether about the limits they have imposed’.
When the EU expanded, most older EU members opted to keep their job markers closed to workers from the new member states during a transition period of at least two years, extendable to five or seven years. The only exceptions were Ireland, Britain and Sweden. While in Warsaw, Mr Ahern received a special award from the Polish Business Centre Club for his role in helping Poland join the European Union and opening the Irish labour market to Poles.

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On 1 May 2004 Poland joined the European Union. As a Polish citizen you therefore have the right to work in the United Kingdom. You should apply to register with the Home Office Worker Registration Scheme as soon as you have started a new job.

As a Polish citizen you therefore have the right to work in the United Kingdom. You should apply to register with the Home Office Worker Registration Scheme as soon as you have started a new job.

One way of finding work in the UK is through a temporary work agency, either based in Poland or in the UK. If you are planning to work in this way you will find information in this leaflet about what you should do before leaving Poland, what your rights are in the UK and important contact details in Poland and the UK.

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Washington - American President George Bush often calls Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski "friend", but on Wednesday he bestowed a different title as they met in the Oval Office: "Mr Prime Minister".

Referring to a possible end to a longstanding dispute over visas for Polish citizens travelling to the United States, Bush said: "I want to thank you for your leadership on that issue, Mr Prime Minister."

Kwasniewski did not seem troubled, but he quietly said "president", prompting Bush to correct himself quickly: "I mean, Mr President. Excuse me."

"I demoted him," Bush quipped, adding: "Well, it's not a demotion - it's a lateral transfer."

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In the middle of a bitter cold night on Feb. 10, 1940, Josephine Plowy, seven months pregnant, was awakened by the sound of pounding on the door of their eastern Poland home.

Russian soldiers barked orders at her to pack up the family's belongings in 10 minutes. There was no word about where the soldiers would take them.

She rushed outside in the snow to the farm and started killing the chickens for food and grabbed one live chicken for its eggs before being pulled away by soldiers.

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From Warsaw Voice

Cimoszewicz Steps Up : New Foreign Minister : Libya-Thawed Relations : Parlez Vous?

Cimoszewicz Steps Up
Foreign Affairs Minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz took over as Sejm speaker Jan. 5, replacing Józef Oleksy, who resigned after the Vetting Court ruled that he had lied about his communist past.

Cimoszewicz's candidacy, put forward by the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), was supported by 223 deputies-exactly the required majority. Cimoszewicz's rival, Deputy Sejm Speaker Józef Zych of the Polish Peasants' Party (PSL), received 219 votes.

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From Warsaw Voice

"We want the EU to open integration prospects for Ukraine and NATO to offer Ukraine a Membership Action Plan"

The European Union and NATO, relations with the United States, Germany and neighbors in the east, further work to stabilize Iraq and more concentrated efforts to improve the state of the Polish economy-these will be the main directions in Poland's foreign policy over the next few years.

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From Warsaw Voice

About 5,000 participants, including the leaders of 44 states, delegations from many organizations and over 1,000 former prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, commemorated the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation by the Soviet Army Jan. 27.

The commemoration took place at the monument to the camp victims, situated near a railroad loading platform on which the Nazis selected those prisoners judged unable to work, sending them straight to the gas chambers. The ceremony opened with the sound of an approaching train.

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Prime Minister Marek Belka talks to The Polish Voice.

You recently declared that a key task of your Cabinet, among other priorities, would be to introduce "new government standards" in Poland. How successful have you been in attaining this goal?
Several months ago I offered Poles a special kind of contract, within a limited time frame, focused on the most important and urgent matters with a style of government free from partisan rivalry and jockeying. Our chief goal has been efficiency and unrelenting consistency in carrying out our program. Let me note that in the first six weeks, when I did not yet know if my government formation mission would succeed, we managed to come up with a health service bill-a piece of legislation that could not be prepared for months previously. Our work was two-pronged at the time. We made efforts to secure support from the Sejm, and at the same time kept our focus on what was the essence of government, that is running the country and solving problems-not the problems of those in power, but the problems of ordinary people. These are precisely the new standards of government-a focus on goals and their efficient implementation, instead of constant disputes, wrangling, lamenting and useless polemics.

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The Polish Parliament will vote on May 5 on whether to dissolve itself ansd thus pave the way for an early election. Parliamentary Speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz has reiterated his earlier promise to table a motion for dissolution on that date.

The motion, however, is unlikely to be carried as Poland's governing Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), has opted to hold parliamentary elections upon the expiry of a full four-year term in September.

Poles must vote in both parliamentary and presidential elections by the end of September.

Political manoeuvring over possible dates for these elections, as well as the European referendum, has dominated headlines in Poland in recent months.

According to the latest popularity polls, the SLD has virtually no chance to extend its rule. The centrist liberal Civic Platform, the rightist Law and Order and the nationalist Leaque of Polish Families are the top three parties.

Observers note that the SLD, which has suffered a severe slide in popularity due to a string of high-profile allegations of corruption, has opted for a September ballot so as to allow time to recover flagging support.

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Ireland's Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, held talks in Warsaw with Polish Prime Minister, Marek Belka, to discuss matters of mutual interest and EU issues. The Irish Prime Minister also received an award from Polish businessmen in recognition of Ireland's presidency of the EU last year. Poland and nine other countries joined the EU last May.
Ahern travelled to Poland from Bulgaria.

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Poland will keep its soldiers in Iraq at least through the end of the year, when the U.N. mandate for foreign troops expires, the country's defense minister told The Associated Press agency. Leaders in Poland, which commands a 6,000-strong multinational force in Iraq, have expressed hope that Iraq's Jan. 30 elections will pave the way for an eventual withdrawal of foreign troops. But Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski told The Associated Press that Poland's previous commitment remains in force. "There is a decision by the president that Polish soldiers will be there until Dec. 31, 2005 - up to 1,700 soldiers plus an additional 700 troops on standby in Poland, and that's how it will be."

Poland has more than 2,400 troops in the multinational force, which is based in central Iraq south of Baghdad. It is reducing its presence to 1,700 troops this month.

Sixteen 16 Polish soldiers have died in Iraq.

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French tyre maker Michelin has signed the lease on a 205-acre (83 hectare) plot of land in the northeastern Polish town of Olsztyn, with a view to expanding its presence there. The company refused to give details of its plans for the site, but the Polish press has reported that it plans to invest more than 500 million euros to expand in Olsztyn.
The town's mayor Jerzy Małkowski said details of the project would be released next week.
Since Michelin first came to Olsztyn in 1995, the company has progressively taken over the production sites of Stomil-Olsztyn, one of the main players on the domestic Polish tyre market.
In 2003, Michelin's production sites in Olsztyn showed a profit of 152 million zloty (38 million euros) for a turnover of 1.55 billion zlotys.

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It's number one!...
Listen

If you want to know what is the best selling single in Poland this week then this is the show for you.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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Still on the hottest topic in Poland – that of lustration and the leak of a list of communist era spies and informers, the weekly Newsweek says that the decisive majority of Polish politicians applauded the publishing of the security police files. The problem is no longer whether to vet but rather how to vet and whom, says the weekly and its adds that the most important thing is to make files available to victims. This is crucial to put an end to suspicions that may surround innocent people whose names are on the list, smuggled out of an institute investigating communist crimes by a journalist.

Solidarnosc, a weekly of the Solidarity trade union, hopes that the leak will speed up the vetting of communist era secret police officers and informers. Today, however, only the agents may have reasons to rejoice as their names are mingled on the list with those of their victims – people who were spied on or targeted to become informers. So again, a caricature is being made of lustration, says Solidarnosc.

Polityka presents some background information on the role of the secret services in communist Poland. It recalls official propaganda that the people ruled, under the guidance of the communist party. It was common secret, however, that monitoring the people and the party was a special, secret and powerful force. It was the interior ministry with its secret police, which produced the files now at the heart of the vetting debate in Poland. It was a state in a state, says Polityka. In the 1980s, the secret police had two central offices, six departments, an investigation bureau and a studies bureau. One section of the investigation bureau dealt exclusively with the Solidarity leader and future president Lech Walesa and his associates, the weekly recalls.

Wprost announces that 12,000 Polish men have done DNA tests to prove or exclude their fatherhood. The question whether they are raising their own offspring is asked by many men, though they will not confess this readily. Wprost commissioned the Pentor public opinion research agency to ask Poles what they think about such tests. And it turns out that slightly over 54 percent of men would like to do them. What came as a surprise is that almost 70 percent of women would also like to check whose child they gave birth to. This means that many women had more than one partner before childbirth and undermines the traditional folk saying that a woman always knows who is the father of her child. Anyway, fathers in Poland have reasons to be suspicious, says Wprost.

Przekroj claims that Poles like to watch politicians on their tv screens more than any other nation. Looking at trends describing Polish television last year, it concludes that there was more news and news analysis than in 2003, while politicians upstaged show business stars and celebrities even in entertainment programs. While many new, mainly imported formats appeared, viewers remained enamored of documentaries and cookery programs. Compared with other tv markets, Poland seems robust considering the number of new programs, but generally Polish television is less varied, while producers and authors are less inventive and more conservative than, say, in Germany, Holland or Britain.

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Poland on Thursday marked the 65th anniversary of the start of mass deportations of its citizens to Siberia. On Stalin’s orders over 320 thousand Poles were shipped out from the regions occupied by Soviet Russia in 1939,in the first four mass deportations which began of February 10 1940 .Later around 140 thousand others were sent out in successive waves of deportations bound mainly for Siberia and Kazakhstan.The aim of the deportations was to empty the territories of Poles and use the deportees as slave labour.
Masses were said on Thursday in the Czestochowa shrine of the Black Madonna in memory of those who were murdered in the Soviet gulags .

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Another group of Polish workers has been attacked in Northern Ireland. Since last May, Polish citizens have been free to seek jobs in the UK as part of Britain's open doors policy for labourers from the new EU member states. Thousands of Poles have found jobs in England, Scotland and Wales, and many are now pouring into Belfast and other areas of Northern Ireland looking for work. But their presence is not always welcome in a land where sectarian violence sometimes means that the Poles are seen as Catholic arrivals. Robert Kusek files this report from Belfast.

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Parliamentary elections may be held before the autumn deadline...

Poland may hold general elections several months before the autumn deadline because many ruling left deputies may join the opposition in a vote to dissolve parliament, its speaker announced today. "Many deputies in the SLD (Democratic Left Alliance) may vote to dissolve parliament," lower house speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz told Reuters in an interview, adding he would also support the motion, set for a vote on May 5. The timing of the election in the biggest new EU member from the former communist east is closely watched by the financial markets, which fear populist parties could make gains and derail Poland's progress towards the euro zone.

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'Black -Haired Girl' is Poland's Eurovision Song Contest entry this year. It's by Ivan and Delfin, whose frontman Ivan Komarenko is a Russian-born Polish TV star. Ivan stars in the country's top soap 'L for Love', as well as touring widely with his band. Ivanand Delfin first came into the spotlight with a catchy dance number 'Black Eyes' two years ago. Can his new release, a blend of Russian, gypsy and Polish music, win the acclaim in Kiev?

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Even though the prospect of Poland adopting the euro to replace the national currency the zloty is pretty remote, more and more ordinary Polish citizens are looking forward to the changeover. Agnieszka Bielawska looks at the results of the latest opinion polls.

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Jan, a twenty five year old laborer had high hopes when he landed his first job abroad in the U.K. 'I am going to make far more than in Poland and if you know a little bit of English you can get by' he says. Britain, one of three countries which has an open door labour market policy for new member states has been one of the hottest destinations for Poles. A market report suggests that some 50,000 Poles found legal employment in the U.K. since the EU expanded to 25 nations eight months ago. But it’s not all good news. Unsuspecting Poles are reportedly being cheated by dubious personnel agencies, so called gang masters, working in the U.K. and Poland. Gang masters seemingly offer legitimate work in prestigious companies to eager job seekers from Eastern and central Europe. But when these people arrive at their destination, promises of wages and good living conditions never materialize.

Tomasz Trafas Consul General from the Polish embassy in the U.K. says that such cases never see the light of day.

Labour expert Mieczyslaw Kabaj says that the UK is ripe for migrant workers because it does offer plenty of opportunities even if landing a job through a personnel agency may be risky at times.

In an effort to clamp down on unlawful recruitment practices the UK adopted the gang masters licensing act two years ago. It was passed after the tragic death of 23 Chinese cockle pickers.

But this is little consolation to the hopeful Polish migrant Jan who was looking to start anew and earn a decent living. Gangmasters still prey on innocent victims who will stop at nothing to get ahead in life.

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Virtually every Polish family has its own recipe for Bigos. Now the Polish Government web site has its very own recipe for the great dish...

0.40kg brined cabbage (sauerkraut), 0.40kg sweet cabbage, 0.20kg boneless pork, 0.20kg veal, 0.25kg sausage, 0.10kg smoked bacon, 30g fat, 50g pork fat, 50g onion, 10g dried boletus mushrooms, 50g tomato puree, 20g flour, salt, pepper, sugar, a few prunes, allspice, bay leaf

Finely chop the brined cabbage, add small quantity of boiling water and boil for an hour. Shred the fresh cabbage, add boiling water and boil with chopped mushrooms for about 40 minutes. Rub the meat with salt, brown it slightly in fat on every side and put in the brined cabbage. Add bacon and stew all the ingredients for about 50 minutes until softened. Dice the pork fat and melt it; add the scratchings to the bigos. Take out the meat, mix the brined and fresh cabbage and optionally thicken it with flour browned with fat and onion. Slice the sausage and dice the pork, veal and bacon; mix all the meats with the cabbage, add tomato puree and seasoning.

Bigos may be served with a variety of meats (game, roast poultry, smoked meats etc.). The more meats there are, the better it tastes. And you can enhance the taste by adding some red wine.

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From Warsaw Voice

"In order to convince us he was completely sober, he did the splits and stood up without help. We were very impressed."
-Zbigniew Babut, a doctor from a Warsaw detox center, on an over-50-year-old patient who had 0.73-percent blood alcohol content

"In many cities, there are debates whether or not the mayor may perform their duties from a prison cell. Only politicians can debate about such things-normal people just think they're crazy."
-Jan Rokita, leader of the Civic Platform (PO), on absurdities in today's Poland

"This will be an indicator of the capability of Christian forces to reject the anti-human civilization propagated in this document."
-Antoni Macierewicz, a deputy from the Catholic-National Movement (RKN), on the most important task for Poland in 2005-rejecting the EU Constitutional Treaty

"Despite the high crime rate among politicians, I would leave my satellite telephone and recording equipment in the Sejm and no one ever stole anything; but after all, the deputies are interested in millions of zlotys, not in such trinkets."
-Andrzej Morozowski, political commentator for TVN television

"Recently during a trial, a judge asked me whether it was possible to say that a man who wanted his wife to have sex with him two or more times a day, was deprived of higher emotions."
-Prof. Zbigniew Lew-Starowicz, a sexologist, on what kind of questions he gets asked as a court expert

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

posted by: Oborski at 12:49 | link | comments |

The top Internet site in Poland this week has not been one of the usual suspects - such as sex or gambling - but a list of names taken from the National Institute of Remembrance.

As the British writer Nick Hornby once pointed out in his novel High Fidelity, men, especially young men, like to make lists. The favorites are things like My Top Ten Greatest Rock Albums of All Time, or My Top Ten Girlfriends, or even My Top 100 Things To Do With Blue-Tac. While women make shopping lists so as not to forget something, many men make lists to reaffirm their existence – a kind of modern day version of Descartes: ‘I make lists, therefore I am.’

But lists can have darker purposes. Think of the mania that the Nazis had for listing imagined races or perceived undesirables. Or think of Schindler’s list, whereby a name’s inclusion could mean escaping the consequences of being on one of the Nazi’s lists.

posted by: Oborski at 12:42 | link | comments |

Workshy British force boss to recruit Poles
by ANDY DOLAN, Daily Mail

08:56am 9th February 2005

A businessman has revealed that he has to recruit workers from Poland because English people on benefits have "given up on the work ethic".

Nick Warner, who runs a business supplying workers to pack boxes for supermarkets, said yesterday that 95 per cent of the 400 people on his books were Polish or Portuguese.

posted by: Oborski at 23:31 | link | comments |

Well, we have made some changes to the site! Out, by popular demand goes the red and white text on a black background and the decorative right hand patterning. In comes a more basic but hopefully more practical design. We hope that you find it more user friendly. All comments and ideas welcome! Other minor changes will follow in due course in order to tidy the site.

We haven't got the time to adjust all previous postings so the new style starts from here!

posted by: Oborski at 20:06 | link | comments |

Warsaw, Feb. 7: Poland and Albania have at present "optimum" political, military, cultural and scientific contacts, said Polish and Albanian Foreign Ministers Adam Daniel Rotfeld and Kastriot Islami after a meeting. The Albanian minister is paying a working visit to Poland.

posted by: Oborski at 18:39 | link | comments |

From Warsaw Voice

Poland’s 2004 gross domestic product grew 5.4 percent, the Central Statistical Office (GUS) reported. Especially welcome was a major increase in investment at the end of the year, creating hopes for a continually high rate of economic growth in the following years.

The economy grew much faster than in 2003, when GDP growth reached 3.8 percent. The 2004 budget law called for 5-percent growth, so the actual result was 0.4 percentage points better than assumed by the government. On the other hand, many analysts predicted that growth would be even higher, at 5.6 percent or even more. This does not alter the fact that the 2004 GDP growth rate was the highest in seven years.

posted by: Oborski at 18:36 | link | comments |

By Sławomir Majman
From Warsaw Voice

The Poles’ time machine has broken down.
Whereas some Poles calmly toil away at economic growth and take advantage of Poland’s fresh EU membership, others are in a wild revolutionary frenzy; to them, the most important thing today is exposing ex-agents of the communist secret service—16 years after the downfall of communism. That’s like Robespierre enthusiastically starting his guillotine rampage when Napoleon’s eagles were shining over the fields of Austerlitz.

posted by: Oborski at 16:25 | link | comments |

posted by: Oborski at 20:58 | link | comments |

Polish president visits US on the eve of Iraq pullout...

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski begins a two-day visit to United States on Wednesday for talks with President George W. Bush, just ahead of a partial pull-out by Poland of its troops from Iraq.
Warsaw has been one of the staunchest backers of the US since the start of the conflict in Iraq in March 2003. It currently has some 2,400 soldiers in the war-torn country, and leads a multinational division of some 5,000 troops in southern and central Iraq.

posted by: Oborski at 20:40 | link | comments |

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski starts a visit to the US for talks with US President George W. Bush. on various issues regarding increased funding for Poland’s armed forces and relaxing US visa requirements for Poles.

This is Kwasniewski’s 6th visit to Washington. Bi-laterial discussions focus on Poland ‘s involvement in Iraq, Warsaw’s firm request for visa free travel for Poles to the US and increased funding for this country’s armed forces. Bogdan Zaryn has more.

The Kwasniewski’s visit to Poland comes several days after US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made a brief stop over in Warsaw as part of an 8 country tour of Europe.

She described Poland as being one of the United States’ strongest transatlantic partners.

Polish Senate House Speaker Longin Pastusiak argues sums up Aleksander Kwasniewski’s visit to Washington this way

Poland was criticized by Germany and France in the run up to the Iraq war for its support for the US led action. Poland has been administrating the Central south Section of Iraq with a multi national force for the past two years.

Poland has sent some 2400 troops into Iraq and is deemed the third largest contingent in the stabilization mission in Iraq.

But Polish officials have said that they plan on sending some 800 troops back home in the next few weeks, cutting the contingent by one third.

According to Krzystof Michalek a Professor of American history at Warsaw University , the early withdrawal of Polish troops from Iraq could be used as a bargaining chip in the negotiating process

Zbignew Lewicki an expert on US policy sees the Kwasniewski visit to the US as a milestone in current US Polish relations

But what are Poles saying about Kwasniewski’s two day visit to the US.

VOX POP

Poles are counting on some good news coming out of the Kwasniewski - Bush bi-lateral summit. US President George Bush is paying a visit to Europe in the last week of February to continue the charm diplomatic defensive .

posted by: Oborski at 20:39 | link | comments |

Mister President,
Mister Prime Minister,
Mister Speaker,
Members of the House,

I take the floor with certain anxiety and diffidence. For it is the first time that I stand on this rostrum as the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. What is more, I am to present to the House the priorities and tenets of Polish foreign policy prepared under your leadership, Mister Speaker, when you were executing the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs with such success.

posted by: Oborski at 17:28 | link | comments |

Former head of the State Protection Office general Gromoslaw Czempinski has put to doubt allegations of the Trybuna daily that the so-called Wildstein list contains the names of active Polish military intelligence officers. The paper claims the confidential register from the Institute of National Remembrance published in the Internet by a prominent journalist Bronislaw Wildstein could become the source information and clues to foreign services about agents and their links presently carrying out sensitive assignments. The general said he is satisfied with the explanations of National Remembrance Institute head professor Leon Kieres as well as military intelligence chief general Marek Dukaczewski who both denied the possiblity of such names being present on the list. However, Czempinski voiced reservations to the practice that names of agents, collaborators as well as innocent people unaware they had been targeted by erstwhile communist secret services have been placed in one catalogue by the Institute of National Remembrance, in the first place.

posted by: Oborski at 20:50 | link | comments |

Naval exercises involving ships, planes and helicopters from Danish, Dutch, Canadian, German, U.S. and Polish units have started on the Baltic. Code-named PASSEX, the series of sea maneuvers is to practice guarding strategic naval convoys threatened by terrorist attacks with the use of submarines. The exercises are to last till Friday. They will end with a port coming ceremony at the Polish Naval Base in Gdynia.

posted by: Oborski at 20:48 | link | comments |

Medical radiologists throughout the country have staged a two hour warning strike. They are protesting against restructurization schemes in the public health care sector envisaging substantial cuts in social spending. Another point of their professional discontent is the poor state of equipment used and its age. Bozena Banachowicz, head of the all-Poland Nurses and Midwives Trade Union told reporters that the protest of radiologists is only the initial stage of a whole wave of actions planned by the milieu, because of the deteriorating standards at hospitals and clinics as well as their growing indebtedness reaching millions of dollars in individual cases. All this has an adverse effect on remuneration of medical personnel, claim the unionists.

posted by: Oborski at 20:47 | link | comments |

Poland will benefit from officially entering the euro zone in the form of an accelerated economic growth – that’s the conclusion after a joint meeting of high government and central bank representatives. It will also enable to get rid of existing differences in the growth rates of the various national economies of EU member countries, on condition of implementing relevant reforms to meet Maastricht criteria. Therefore, greater coordination of fiscal and monetary policies are required, stated the government and banking experts. The greatest challenge Poland faces would be to cut the budget deficit to under 3% of the GDP and maintaining that level.

posted by: Oborski at 20:46 | link | comments |

If there's one place in Poland everyone wants to be this winter month, it's Zakopane, the country's premier skiing resort at the foot of the High Tatras. In Zakopane, there's one place to go apres-ski: the famous Krupowki promenade. Danusia Szafraniec has been strolling up and down the place you go to see and be seen.

posted by: Oborski at 20:44 | link | comments |

Warsaw, Feb. 6: A "road map" of actions, aimed at lifting U.S. visas for Poles, to be undertaken by 2006 was announced by PM Marek Belka after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who paid a few-hour visit to Poland. According to PM it can't be said the visa requirement will be lifted in 2006. However, he termed a success the fact that the U.S. side, so far reluctant to the idea, decided to accept the "road map" as a basis for steps aimed at lifting it. According to Rice the U.S. will try to finally solve the question of visas in the spirit of friendship and cooperation. Belka and Rice discussed U.S. support for the modernisation of the Polish armed forces. The U.S. secretary of state underlined the key role of Poland in Euro-Atlantic alliance and expressed the conviction that the modernisation would progress. Rice underlined Poland's huge contribution in developing democracy in Iraq and thanked Polish soldiers and families of those who fell in Iraq for their toil. She also stressed Poland's role in transformations undergoing in Ukraine and Afghanistan and expressed the hope that Poland, having developed good relations with Israel and Palestine would help boost peace process now when there is a chance for improvement in Palestinian-Israeli relations. The U.S. guest also met with Foreign Minister Adam Daniel Rotfeld and thanked Poland for "extraordinary involvement in Iraq. She assured the minister that the U.S. does not perceive the cutting of Polish contingent by 800 soldiers as an expression of decreased support for the coalition. The two discussed progress in a number of Polish-U.S. issues. However, "good news" will be conveyed by both countries presidents that are to meet in Washington on February 9. Rice and Rotfeld talked about cross-Atlantic relations. They agreed that Europe and the U.S. should stop talking about the development and start actual actions. According to Rice, U.S.-Europe relations are ripe enough for opening a new chapter. She assured that the difference lies not in the two pursuing different values but in presenting different approach to certain issues. During her short visit to Poland the U.S. secretary of state found time to meet a group of Polish soldiers who served in Iraq.

posted by: Oborski at 20:41 | link | comments |

Polityka is outraged that a list containing names of the communist era security agents as well as their victims has been made public. The list will now be spreading like a virus, causing a lustration chaos, the weekly believes. It does not differentiate between the oppressors and the oppressed, and in that respect all persons on the list are equally guilty or not guilty. It is a moral absurdity, Polityka charges.

The lay catholics Tygodnik Powszechny is abhorred by the passion to sow confusion, which it sees in the behavior of Bronislaw Wildstein, a journalist who smuggled the list out of the Institute of National Remembrance. The fact that a person’s name is on the list does not prove anything, but it may arouse public suspicions around that person. And it does not matter whether he or she was a candidate for a secret agent who did not bend under pressure, or was a true secret agent, writes the weekly in protest against causing moral harm to innocent people.

posted by: Oborski at 18:37 | link | comments |

Warsaw, Jan. 31: Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and his spouse Jolanta will visit Switzerland between Janaury 31 and February 13. On February 8-10 the president will pay a working visit to the United States, the Presidential Chancellery reported. The president will perform his regular duties of the head of the state via all communication channels linking him with Poland's chief administration units.

posted by: Oborski at 23:00 | link | comments |

From Warsaw Voice

"I wanted to set it free, but the shop assistant explained the store could not lose money on it, so I paid the rate for a 60-gram fish-zl.0.54."
-A client of a Wrocław hypermarket, who spotted a green tree frog-a protected species in Poland-swimming in a tank with carp for sale before Christmas Eve

posted by: Oborski at 22:55 | link | comments |

From Warsaw Voice

About 5,000 participants, including the leaders of 44 states, delegations from many organizations and over 1,000 former prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, commemorated the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation by the Soviet Army Jan. 27.

The commemoration took place at the monument to the camp victims, situated near a railroad loading platform on which the Nazis selected those prisoners judged unable to work, sending them straight to the gas chambers. The ceremony opened with the sound of an approaching train.

posted by: Oborski at 22:52 | link | comments |

Courier of Warsaw leaves on final mission...

Under a cover story title „Who Shall Complete His Mission?", NEWSWEEK POLSKA pays tribute to Jan Nowak Jezioranski who died at the age of 91 in Warsaw. The place is vital in this case, as Jezioranski lived most of his adult life outside Poland, but never had left his homeland spiritually. Jezioranski gained fame as one of the handful of the underground Home Army special couriers during World War Two. His daring trips leading from Nazi occupied Poland in winding and circular routes to Britain enabled the transfer of crucial information between resistance headquarters in Warsaw and the erstwhile Polish government in exile resident in London. After the war he stayed abroad for political reasons, first in France then in West Germany where he was head of the Polish section of Radio Free Europe in the 19-Fifties and Sixties. During that time Nowak Jezioranski became a symbol of anti-communist crusade, for which he recieved a death sentence for high treason from the erstwhile authorities back home. In the Seventies and Eighties he emigrated to the United States, becoming an expert advisor on Eastern Europe to succesive American presidents. For some time he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish-American Congress. During his residence in Washington Jan Nowak Jezioranski was an untiring advocate of the Polish struggle for political sovereignty and democracy, especially during the martial law period. Right after the dismantling of communist rule in Poland in 1989, the heroic Courier of Warsaw returned to his homeland and beloved city. He was one of the most active and successful proponents of Poland’s membership in NATO. In Poland Pan Jan, as he was respectfuly called both by friends and opponents, attained the position of an unquestionable moral and political authority. His intentions were clear, his ideals noble and he always played fair. And as president Kwasniewki recalled in a memorial address, Jan Nowak Jezioranski proved that being a untiring patriot is not just a phrase with empty meaning. But unfortunately, in today’s world people like him are harder to come by with each passing year.

"Cześć!"

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