Poland is a committed member of the international community and plays an active and multi-faceted role to improve global security. Poland has been involved in various peacekeeping and mediatory missions for a few dozen decades—under the UN flag and, since joining NATO and the European Union, also in missions and operations of those organisations. The priority areas of the operational engagement of Polish armed forces, officers and civilian experts are: countries of the Eastern Partnership (in particular as part of the EUMAM Ukraine, a military mission which aims to provide training to Ukraine’s Armed Forces and enhance the country’s defence capabilities; the EUMA, a civilian mission in Armenia; the EUMM Georgia and the EUPM Moldova) and of the Western Balkans (Polish soldiers and experts take part in the EUFOR ALTHEA military operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the EU’s civilian mission EULEX, and KFOR, NATO’s stabilisation mission in Kosovo). Several hundred Polish soldiers and civil experts are simultaneously involved in various actions abroad for peace, recovery and development.

Given the scale of threats and the potential impact on the functioning of states and societies, the issues of hybrid threats and cybersecurity are rapidly gaining ground globally and becoming an integral part of international relations. Internationally, Poland supports measures to develop and implement norms of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace, apply to it the existing principles of international law, and work out confidence building measures between countries. We are placing emphasis on developing capabilities and coordinating activities within NATO and the EU with respect to cybersecurity and cyberdefence. We also cooperate with our NATO allies and EU partners for the prevention of, and resilience against, hybrid threats.

The civilian dimension of EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is the EU’s course of external actions in the area of crisis management, based on art. 42 and art. 43 TEU. The majority of challenges for the EU and its member states in the contemporary international security environment calls for a civilian response. The civilian CSDP missions are the most visible EU action to support security in its neighbourhood.

On 19 November 2018, the Council of the EU and the member states, including Poland, adopted conclusions on the establishment of a Civilian Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) Compact. The agreed 22 political commitments aim at strengthening and improving the civilian CSDP that should adjust it to current challenges and changes in security environment. This should lead to a more effective and more coherent civilian CSDP. The Civilian CSDP Compact draws the attention to new security challenges that need to be tackled like those linked to irregular migration, hybrid threats, cyber security, terrorism and radicalisation, organised crime, border management and maritime security, preventing and countering violent extremism and protection of cultural heritage.

Civilian CSDP Compact is a part of the EU Global Strategy implementation process (2016 EUGS) in the area of common security and defence policy.

The commitments of the Civilian CSDP Compact include i. a.:

• increasing contribution of EU’s member states to civilian missions (in the form of personnel, equipment, training, financial contributions);
• review of national procedures, decision-making, financing and legislation related to participation of national experts in civilian CSDP missions aiming at increasing the number of civilian experts in CSDP missions;
• developing trainings for EU’s experts, seconded to civilian missions of the EU, according to the CSDP standards;
• the EU’s ability to launch a new mission of up to 200 personnel within 30 days after a Council decision.

The EU member states responsible for seconding civilian experts to EU’s civilian missions committed themselves to deliver on the Civilian CSDP Compact by early summer 2023 at the latest.

Each EU member state implements the commitments of the Civilian CSDP Compact on the basis of a national implementation plan. Polish national implementation plan was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 7 June 2020 under the title “Civilian CSDP Compact, National Implementation Plan – Poland”. NIP – Poland outlines a schedule of actions aiming at delivering the commitments resulting from the Civilian CSDP Compact. The course of action of the NIP – Poland was agreed by ministries (Ministry of the Interior and Administration, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage) and subordinated uniformed services (Police, Boarder Guard, Customs and Tax Control Service /as part of National Revenue Administration/, Prison Service).

The NIP-Poland focuses on processing improvements of the deployment system in all involved ministries and uniformed services, on strengthening communication on civilian CSDP, on enhancing inter-institutional cooperation and coordination, and on defining strategic goals of Polish engagement in civilian CSDP missions as short term activities. Drafting and implementing common standards and best practices supporting career-path/further professional development of experts for civilian CSDP missions, unifying trainings, exploring possibilities to broaden the civilian expert’s pool by including freelanced experts are the identified challenges for a long term implementation.

Delivering on actions of NIP – Poland aims at improving the national system of seconding experts to civilian missions and, as a result of it, increasing Polish participation in civilian missions of the EU. The implementation of the NIP – Poland is processed by ministries (see above) and uniformed services subordinated to them. Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinates the implementation process.

For more than 70 years, NATO has been the most important pillar of the European security by providing a necessary link between Europe and North America in the political and defence sphere. With successive waves of enlargement, 30 countries are now members of the North Atlantic Alliance, while others actively seek accession to the Organisation.

By constantly developing military capabilities and structural flexibility, the Alliance effectively adjusts its resources and means of operation to address the changing security challenges of its members.

In line with the current Strategic Concept, the Alliance has three key missions:

• collective defence resulting from Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, including effective deterrence;
• crisis management to respond to a full spectrum of challenges based on a unique set of political and military capabilities;
• cooperative security through a network of active partnerships with non-NATO countries and contribution to arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament.

Recently, the issues of defence against hybrid threats, cybersecurity, energy security as well as the emerging and disruptive technologies (EDT) have gained special importance at the Alliance’s agenda.

At their meeting in London in 2019, NATO leaders agreed to launch a forward-looking reflection process/NATO2030, under the auspices of the Secretary General and with the aim to further strengthen NATO’s political dimension.  Minister Anna Fotyga has been appointed to the group of ten experts supporting the work of the Secretary General. The process is to conclude by the next meeting of heads of state and government in 2021. 

What is crucial for Poland is NATO's effective deterrence potential and military capabilities, which ensure the implementation of collective defence tasks in the face of destabilisation from the south, but particularly in the face of increasingly menacing military and hybrid threats in the east. An appropriate answer to these challenges is to improve the effectiveness of NATO's command structure, as well as the recent significant strengthening of the eastern flank, including through the implementation of the 2016 NATO summit decision relating to the enhanced forward presence (eFP). NATO has also established a tailored Forward Presence (tFP) to strengthen security in the Black Sea Region.

At the same time, Poland is engaged in Allied activities outside the Treaty area. They are aimed at prevention, emergency response and post-conflict reconstruction. Since joining NATO, we have taken part in virtually all Allied operations, and Polish contingents were among the largest in the KFOR and ISAF missions, which were critical to regional stability. We are active wherever the Allied security is threatened — in southern Afghanistan and Iraq or in the east, by regularly patrolling airspace over the Baltic States as part of the Air Policing mission and by taking part in a combat group in Latvia in the framework of eFP and tFP in Romania.

The Alliance's regional and global effectiveness is largely determined by the active development of political and economic stability in NATO’s neighbourhood through a network of partnerships and targeted assistance programmes. Poland is among the Allies most committed to promoting reforms in partner countries, such as Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova, the Balkans, and advocates a continuous deepening of cooperation with Sweden and Finland. We believe that the Alliance should remain open to countries that are able to meet the established criteria and should actively support the aspiring countries in their reforms. It is also essential to facilitate cooperation with the EU, especially in the fight against hybrid threats.

For Poland, NATO membership also means a permanent strengthening of defence capabilities. Poland continues to strengthen its armed forces and makes a significant contribution to the allied collective defence and emergency response regardless of the direction and nature of threats. This is also reflected in the location of the following NATO structures within our country: Multinational Corps North-East in Szczecin, NATO Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC) in Bydgoszcz, NATO Information and Communication Agency CIS Support Unit in Bydgoszcz (NCIA CSU), NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) in Bydgoszcz, Command of 3rd NATO Signal Battalion in Bydgoszcz, NATO Military Police Centre of Excellence in Bydgoszcz, Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence in Krakow and Command of the Multinational Division North East in Elblag.