12 May 2014
 

Polish–German summary of 10 years’ membership in EU

“If it wasn’t for the EU, our co-operation would certainly not be as good and close as today,” emphasised Deputy Minister Henryka Mościcka-Dendys during a debate with Michael Roth, Minister of State for European Affairs. The deputy chief of German diplomacy spoke with Secretary of State Piotr Serafin about energy security and the EU’s future after elections to the European Parliament.
During the conference titled “A decade together. Summary of ten years of Poland’s and Germany’s EU membership and a glimpse into the future,” organised by the Institute of Public Affairs with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Foundation for Polish–German Co-operation, Deputy Minister Mościcka-Dendys stressed the positive influence of Poland’s and Germany’s EU membership on their bilateral relations. “Polish–German neighbourhood also shows that the EU is a value in itself,” added the deputy chief of Polish diplomacy. She recalled the importance of a high voter turnout at the forthcoming elections to the European Parliament in both countries in showing their citizens’ affinity with the EU. “Warsaw is the capital of one of the most Euro-enthusiastic countries in Europe,” she said.

An important point of the debate involved Polish–German combined effort towards solving the Ukrainian crisis, which, stressed Deputy Minister Roth, is the EU’s toughest test in decades. Mr Roth also remarked that Poland is “one of the driving forces of European integration today.”

At the meeting of deputy foreign ministers for European affairs, Secretary of State Piotr Serafin presented Polish proposals on establishing an Energy Union, such as increasing the EU’s bargaining power in negotiations with external gas suppliers and joint purchasing.  “Poland’s concept of pooling gas purchases is based on mechanisms which are already functioning on the EU level. A good example of how to provide transparency on the gas market is the Euroatom Supply Agency’s decades-long functioning, which guarantees full transparency of the market and equitable rules of competition,” said Deputy Minister Serafin.