Poolse president in inaugurele rede: Polen wordt een leidende Europese macht (en) - Hoofdinhoud
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Poland's new President Bronislaw Komorowski described Poland as a leading EU i power ready to shape the future of the union in his inaugural speech on Friday (6 August).
"It is from our initiative that the Eastern Partnership came about and that reflection was deepened on the Common Security and Defence Policy. We are joining the group of European leaders. We want to strengthen, inspire and invigorate the Old Continent," he said at his swearing-in ceremony in the Sejm, referring to a Polish scheme to boost EU relations with post-Soviet countries.
"I want the office of the President to become a centre of reflection on the future of united Europe, because the discussion on this subject is taking place in Europe and Poland's voice should not be absent."
The Polish head of state, who is responsible for foreign and defence policy, noted that he will make his first official visit to Brussels, followed by Paris and Berlin.
"I believe that relations taking shape in the Weimar Triangle, on the so-called Poland-Germany-France line, are key to European stability and unity, as well as for the position of our country," he added.
He said "close relations" with the US and Poland's Nato membership "remain ... one of Poland's foreign policy pillars."
Cultivating closer links with the Visegrad countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) and Ukraine came next in the order of the keynote speech. Continuation of the recent "Polish-Russian reconciliation" was noted as a final priority.
The rhetoric marks a shift from Mr Komorowski's predecessor, the late Lech Kaczynski, who attached greater weight to Polish-US relations and who made no secret of his euroscepticism and his historical grievances against Germany and Russia.
Mr Komorowski's list of internal Polish priorities, including education, development of the Internet and creative industries, the removal of barriers for young people to get jobs and gender equality, also stands in contrast to the Kaczynski's appeal to older voters and rural regions.
The new President, himself a former anti-Communist activist, did not overlook Poland's painful past, however.
"We live in an independent, safe country which is respected around the world," he said. "For over 200 years our country has not had the chance to taste such a long and such a well-used period of freedom."
Mr Komorowski, who hails from the ruling centre-right Civic Platform party, narrowly beat Lech Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, from the right-wing Law and Justice opposition party, in a snap vote in July caused by the Smolensk air tragedy.
The Komorowski presidency is likely to help the Civic Platform government to run a tight ship during its EU chairmanship in the second half of 2011.
Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk i rarely saw eye-to-eye on Europe, leading to comical episodes such as Mr Tusk refusing to let Mr Kaczynski fly to EU summits on the official plane and the pair scrapping over seats at the summit table in Brussels.
Mr Komorowski devoted a great part of his Friday address to an appeal for national unity, noting that 8 million people voted for Jaroslaw Kaczynski in July. Jaroslaw Kaczynski did not attend the inauguration ceremony however, with one party colleague telling press that Mr Komorwoski did not show adequate grief over Lech Kaczysnki's death in the Smolensk crash.
"There are certain events in a democratic state when all should be present and when their absence is regarded as a deliberate protest," the President of the EU parliament, Polish politician Jerzy Buzek i, told Reuters i in Warsaw.
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