“Creating divisions in the European Union will weaken it,” President Andrzej Duda said in Athens. In his view, involving national parliaments in the debate on the future of the EU is a solution worth considering.
On Monday in Athens, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Greek President Prokopis Pawlopulos attended the opening of an exhibition devoted to the Polish and Greek World War II hero, Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz.
Duda spoke about the future of the EU. He argued that the success of the European project required empowering citizens' voice in the debate. “In my view, it would be an idea deserving at least serious consideration to arrange for greater involvement in this debate of national parliaments, which are a political representation of society and have a strong mandate, due to their origins in multi-party pluralistic elections,” he stressed.
Duda pointed out that “Europe should be identified primarily with its citizens – not with institutions, but with ordinary people. Unfortunately, many citizens today feel politically powerless. All too often their voice is disavowed due to ideological reasons and they are excluded from public debate on grounds of populism,” claimed the President. “As a consequence of this approach, our democracies and governments fail to fulfil their basic function – they do not perform the tasks that are important to citizens,” he said.
The President declared that Poland steadfastly defended the right of all member states to equal treatment in deciding the future of Europe.
He said he had no doubt that “consent to create internal hierarchies and divisions within the Union will ultimately weaken it.”
“Moreover, contrary to what the proponents of this idea claim, unequal treatment of Union members does not solve any problem,” he continued.
According to him, these tendencies are due to the fact that “such projects are motivated by national egoism, rather than communal solidarity. Otherwise, a project that threatens the energy security of some member states would have been rejected long ago. This is not what loyal cooperation discussed in the European treaties is about,” stressed Duda.
He expressed the conviction that “a united Europe will be strong only if it can defend the four unions: of European institutions, of Community law, of the European market and of a common policy budget.”
The Polish President stressed that as a free and democratic state, Poland wanted to build a world in which the freedom of nations and equality of states are respected. “I have no doubt that cooperation based on solidarity and respect for and enforcement of international law provide the community of free nations with a powerful defense against aggression, which destroys international order and security,” he said.
Duda also talked about the non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council, which Poland will assume for two years, starting next year. “Poland's commitment to building international security and the community of free states will be at the top of our priorities, as we become a member of the UNSC,” he said.
“We come to the Security Council with the conviction that international law is the only effective mechanism of maintaining peace among nations,” stressed the President. In his view, respect for international law is the basis for a “stable, predictable and peaceful order in relations between states.”
“I this case, freedom is synonymous with peace. Enslavement, on the other hand, brings war,” concluded the Polish President.
The exhibition is devoted to the Warsaw-born Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz, who engaged in intelligence work during World War II and was involved in the Greek resistance.
President Duda said that the heroic deeds of Iwanow-Szajnowicz must have been motivated by the love of homeland and freedom. “Today, almost 75 years after his death, Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz remains a symbol of bravery and struggle for freedom and independence, and of the highest price that sometimes has to be paid for them,” he said.
Źródło: tvn24.pl/tłumaczenie Intertext.com.pl