Continuity or Change? Polish Foreign Policy after the 2015 National Elections

Continuity or Change? Polish Foreign Policy after the 2015 National Elections

Thursday, 18 February 2016 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Venue: 
Seminar Room, European Studies Centre, 70 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HR
Speaker(s): 
Krzysztof Szczerski (Secretary of State, Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland)
Chair: 
Mikolaj Kunicki (St Antony's College)
Discussant: 
Gerhard Gnauck ("Die Welt" correspondent)
Series: 
POMP Seminar Series

Professor Krzysztof Szczerski will discuss the following issues:

  • Continuity of the euro-atlantic direction of Polish foreign policy.
  • What changes? The formula of conducting foreign policy: stronger articulation of Poland’s national interests.
  • Active foreign policy (esp. more sovereignty within the UE)
  • Real, not ritual model of diplomacy
  • Areas of Poland’s stronger involvement:
  • Significant increase in effective defence and deterrence potential of NATO (eastern flank reinforcement – NATO’s enhanced forward presence, activity in facing challenges from the South)
  • Transatlantic partnership
  • The EU reform while advocating European unity (the union of free nations and equal states, more flexibility, EU global economic competitiveness, addressing the set of European crises)
  • Strengthening Poland’s eastern policy (Ukraine crisis)
  • Development of regional cooperation (strengthening the V4, building The Intermarium Axis – Adriatic, Baltic, Black Sea countries, Baltic and Nordic cooperation, launching the “Carpathian Strategy”)
  • Searching for the global partnerships in trade and investments (esp. the area of innovations and technology).
  • Strengthening the relations with Polonia and Poles who live abroad. Active anti-defamation policy. 
  • Promoting Polish position in international organizations.
  • Promoting the international law as a basis for peace and stability in the international relations