Polonia mon amour » post in inglese

Titolo forte, EU debole?

Paolo Morawski — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:57:06 +0000

Hungary could become the first former Soviet satellite to lose its democracy

International Herald Tribune, Tuesday, January 24, 2012, p.8

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Vaclav Havel: in memoriam

Paolo Morawski — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:02:46 +0000

Václav Havel, playwright and president

Cari amici,
come sapete stamane è scomparso Vaclav Havel, senza dubbio uno dei più geniali protagonisti del 20° secolo, degno interprete della grande tradizione umanista ceca di Hus, Comenio e Masaryk. Desidero informarvi che lunedì 23 gennaio alle 19, presso l’aula magna della mia università, sto cercando di organizzare un ricordo compendente interventi di vari ospiti, letture e la proiezione del film documentario “The Power of the Powerless”, il cui titolo riprende il suo libro più famoso. Federigo Argentieri

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Tutto sulla Presidenza Polacca dell’UE

Paolo Morawski — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:31:45 +0000

EurActiv welcomes Poland’s Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers and provides independent editorial coverage of the Polish EU Presidency priorities.
As an official “Friend of the Polish EU Presidency”, EurActiv Poland will be featuring articles in a special EU Presidency section (http://www.euractiv.pl/prezydencja) providing regular coverage in Polish of topical policy areas over the six months to the end of 2011. Interviews, newsletters, videos, blogs and social media will also be featured in the section.
EurActiv.com (http://www.euractiv.com/en), for its part, will publish select content, in English, on EU Presidency priorities and topical policy issues including the EU budget, energy, regional policy and the Eastern partnership.

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1 luglio 2011

Paolo Morawski — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:58:45 +0000

Poland’s EU Presidency programme is focused on three main priorities:

“European integration as the source of growth”: Budget, Single Market.
A “Secure Europe”: Food, energy, defence.
A “Europe benefiting from openness”: Southern and Eastern Neighbourhood, Western Balkans, Russia and the Doha Round of trade talks. Leggi tutto
VEDI: Priorités de la présidence polonaise du Conseil de l’UE

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2050: un’Europa con molti anziani

Paolo Morawski — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:36:48 +0000

In 2050, nearly one in three European citizens will be 65 or older. Demographic change and population ageing is one of the greatest challenges that will affect the structure of the EU economy over the next couple of decades, through its impacts on labour markets, pensions systems and public finances.
The policy implications of this demographic evolution are profound: the proportion of people of working age in the EU will shrink at the same time as the number of those who potentially need support mechanisms, such as retirement benefits and public healthcare, expands. European societies will need to respond and adapt to this change.
The challenge varies considerably across Europe, since EU member states are at different starting points, both concerning their demographic outlook and also their labour market performance.
Assessing the relative position of EU countries according to the old-age dependency ratio – a demographic indicator that measures the proportion of people over 65 over the working-age population – shows that the best performing countries are Ireland, Slovakia, Cyprus and Poland. Old-age dependency ratio is often used to estimate the impact of demographic trends on welfare systems and, according to Eurostat projections, the average ratio in the EU is forecast to grow from 25.9% in 2010 up to 50.4% in 2050….. Leggi tutto

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Polonia = ? = paese normale che attraversa un buon momento

Paolo Morawski — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:52:17 +0000

Il Paese si sta lasciando alle spalle l’era populista ed euroscettica dei fratelli Kaczynski. Il governo del liberale Tusk si prepara al semestre di presidenza europea e alle elezioni legislative del prossimo autunno potendo vantare una buona performance economica, malgrado la crisi finanziaria che ha colpito l’Europa. La riflessione sulla propria storia: il dibattito sull’Olocausto, sui rapporti con la comunità ebraica e sulle responsabilità nel pogrom di Jedwabne del 1941, anima anche i teatri e la vita culturale. Il rapporto con la Russia: dall’eccidio di Katyn alla tragedia dell’incidente aereo di Smolensk, in cui è morto il presidente Lech Kaczynski, il tema si presta a speculazioni politiche che restano centrali per il partito Legge e Giustizia, guidato da Jaroslaw Kaczynski. L’ascesa nei sondaggi della formazione Sinistra Democratica. Ascolta l’intervista a Carla Tonini di Ada Pagliarulo su RADIO Radicale, 28 aprile 2011
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Il Paese sta bene ma il governo manca di ambizione, scrive L’Economist
… Poland… the biggest of the European Union’s newish members now has something to celebrate. It survived the financial crisis with barely a blip—its economy even grew in 2009 when most others shrank… It is the unquestioned diplomatic and economic heavyweight of its region. In July it takes over the rotating presidency of the EU. And in October Donald Tusk is set to become the first prime minister in Poland’s history to win re-election after a full term in office, bestriding a political landscape that is pleasingly normal… less pleasant ghosts of the past are fading. People no longer equate Poland with the tantrums, paranoia and idiosyncrasies of the government led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Still less do they associate the country with chaos and backwardness, or with futile wartime heroics. Ties with Russia and Germany, the two historic menaces, have never been better… The “reset” of relations with Russia has been a success, but Poland’s relations with its smaller neighbours like Lithuania are too often scratchy… Leggi tutto.
– Vedi anche: Poland’s politics is stable at last. That is good—but no excuse for complacency
– E anche: Poland, an emerging market that remained insulated from shocks on its doorstep: It is by far the biggest economy in central Europe (making up 40% of the GDP of the EU’s ten new ex-communist members), and gets lots of oomph from domestic demand. Expansion in neighbouring countries, mainly Germany, is now stoking Polish growth, forecast at around 4% this year and next. But Poland also entered the crisis in sound shape… The result is a superficially happy picture… Poland has replaced Russia as Germany’s main eastern trading partner, even including energy… Leggi tutto
– E anche: Tusk… Poland’s prime minister visits The Economist: … Then we turned to Poland’s relations with its eastern neighbours. These look a little troubled. The dramatic reconciliation with Russia seen after the Smolensk plane crash in April last year has fizzled out (Russia’s official report on the crash was slow, slovenly and unfair, in the eyes of many Poles). Ukraine seems to be spiralling away from democracy and particularly from media freedom, while Belarus has shattered hopes that the generous offer made by Poland and Germany before the election would lead to a change of policy by the regime. And Lithuania’s foot-dragging on the status of its Polish-speaking minority has so annoyed Mr Tusk’s foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, that he has said he will not travel to Vilnius until things change. Mr Tusk’s response was cautious and emollient. The great gain with Russia was that relations continued “without drama”, he said. Meetings at the prime-ministerial and presidential levels proceed normally, “regardless of tough circumstances”. Relations with Russia are better than they have been for a decade (some might say for longer). Trade is rising, and Poland has signed a long-term gas contract with Russia that meets EU standards. All those plusses may be undramatic, but Mr Tusk clearly feels some pride in the normalisation of relations. On Belarus, he pooh-poohed the idea that anyone had had illusions about Aleksandr Lukashenko’s willingness to embrace democracy. Poland would continue to promote civil society there, and was noting the regime’s increasing problems. “If all EU countries put as much effort on the issue as Poland does, and had as few illusions, we would be a lot farther,” he said, in a rare moment of sharpness. That may be a dig at Austria. Turning to Ukraine, he noted that he had just returned from Kiev* and had been pleasantly surprised by the “determination” of both the president and the prime minister to get an deep free-trade agreement with the EU this year. If true, that’s good news. Previous visitors have joked that the Ukraininan leadership seems to think that the EU is trying to join Ukraine, not vice versa. But his most interesting point came on relations with Lithuania, where some might see daylight between the prime minister’s approach and the more combative style of Mr Sikorski. Poland’s only practical expression of its disappointment with the Lithuanian position, he said, was to increase funding for the Lithuanian minority in Poland. “We want to lead by example” he said. That led on to a wider point. “We must understand the Lithuanians. We Poles have concerns about our neighbours too. Poles must understand history but we must also overcome it if it is obstructing our contemporary goals”. Other foreign-policy questions included Russia (which Mr Tusk implicitly compared to North Africa in its relations with the EU);.. Mr Tusk’s final point was a nice one about the Polish national character: impatience, he argued, was a national asset. Poles want things to be better, faster… leggi tutto
– E anche: Poland-Lithuania: Easter greetings… Poland complains publicly to the Lithuanian ambassador… leggi tutto

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La transizione polacca e il presente arabo

Paolo Morawski — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:20:38 +0000

… Poland, which takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1, can provide a special perspective for the Middle East and North Africa, specifically helping “in the transformation and democratization process,” the foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, said in an interview. The idea is that Poland, as a former Communist country that went through enormous social, economic and political upheaval throughout the 1990s, could share ideas with the emerging political powers in the Middle East. “Poland sees a value-added aspect by passing on to our friends in the southern neighborhood the transitional experience that we went through,” Mr. Sikorski said… “We believe we have the relevant experience when it comes to making such a transition in which the agenda is immense and complex,” Mr. Sikorski said. He referred to several issues that emerging democracies would have to deal with. One was how to regulate the relationship between religion and the state… Mr. Sikorski also said the Arab countries had to deal with the former ruling parties, how to organize elections, what to do with the security apparatus that functioned under the previous regimes, and how to control the police and the armed forces democratically…
IL MESSAGGIO è: … when Poland takes over the E.U. presidency, it intends to push Brussels to give its European Neighborhood Policy much more attention….
Leggi tutto in Poland Looks to Its Past in Assessing Arab Present, By JUDY DEMPSEY, International Herald Tribune, Published: April 13, 2011

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La Polonia come sta?

Paolo Morawski — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:27:04 +0000

The Details about New World Bank report says Poland is on the right track to meet Europe 2020 targets but still needs a number of reforms in employment, education, and innovation displayed below
Raising employment, improving skills, enhancing innovation and technology absorption will put Poland on track for higher growth rates, says the World Bank
WARSAW, March 21, 2011 – The World Bank presented its new report today in Warsaw entitled Europe 2020 Poland: Fueling Growth and Competitiveness in Poland through Employment, Skills, and Innovation. The report analyzes how Poland can make progress in attaining Europe 2020 targets in order to reach higher growth rates, and provides policy recommendations in that regard.
“Poland weathered the recent crisis very well, but there is uncertainty about whether it will be able to return to high growth rates, which exceeded 5 percent a year before the crisis, or, for that matter, to develop at a similar speed as a number of other high-achieving upper-middle-income countries such as Chile, the Republic of Korea, or Malaysia,” said Marcin Piątkowski, World Bank Senior Economist and one of the authors of the report. “Poland has already undertaken important reforms in many areas, but it needs to go further to sustain its impressive pre-crisis growth rates and meet the new targets on which Poland still lags behind.”
Europe 2020 Strategy Targets – Poland’s progress:

Targets under the Europe 2020 Strategy	Poland

75% of the population aged 20-64 should be employed	64.9%
3% of the EU’s GDP should be invested in R&D	0.59%
The share of early school leavers should be under 10%	5.3%
At least 40% of 30-34 years old should have completed a tertiary education	32.8%
Reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or exclusion by 20 million in the EU	10.4 million[1]

[1] Target for Poland is 1.5 million. LEGGI Tutto. E VEDI pure qui.

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Sulla Politica estera polacca

Paolo Morawski — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:26:03 +0000

Poland’s foreign policy. Sikorski speaks
The Economist, Mar 18th 2011, 13:07 by Edward Lucas | LONDON
POLAND is the unquestioned diplomatic heavyweight of the ex-communist world. So Radek Sikorski’s annual outline of foreign policy is worth reading closely (disclosure: he’s a friend)…. Polish diplomacy has indeed never been more solid or more effective. But those are means, not ends. Leggi tutto.

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Sul Museo del comunismo, pieno di animali

Paolo Morawski — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 09:17:21 +0000

Communism through the Eyes of Animals
By Andrew Fenwick, TOL, March 23rd, 2011
… In a Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism: Fables from a Mouse, a Parrot, a Bear, a Cat, a Mole, a Pig, a Dog & a Raven (published, rather appropriately, by Penguin), Croatian author Slavenka Drakulic looks at the rise and fall of communism in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia, Poland, former East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Albania, through the eyes of eight animals…. — VEDI:

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