Poland in Ireland

The event will also include a debate whose participants are to be:
🔹 Konrad Szymański, Minister for EU Affairs of the Republic of Poland;
🔹 Anita van den Ende, Director General for European Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign;Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
🔹 Piotr Arak, Director of Polish Economic Institute;
🔹 Agata Kołodziej, Head of the communications team of the Polish Economic Institute- Moderator.

The event is co-organised by the Department of Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and KSAP.

 

Watch the debate on YouTube channels of KSAP and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

Professor Bronisław Geremek Lectures

The series of Professor Bronisław Geremek Lectures began in 2010 on the initiative of the Polish and Dutch foreign ministers as a tribute to the political and academic activity of Professor Bronisław Geremek and his involvement in the relations between Poland and the Netherlands in the context of the European integration process.

The Lecture is held annually, alternately in Poland and the Netherlands, and covers broadly understood European topics. The speakers are eminent representatives of the world of politics, diplomacy, media, academia and science. This year, on its 10th edition, the Professor Bronisław Geremek Lecture is dedicated to the economic dimension of the European integration.

 

 

The balance of the costs and benefits of European integration for the world after the pandemic

The negotiations between European politicians in 2020 have been the liveliest since the times of the EU summit in Nice almost 20 years ago. After the lockdown, they had to decide on a rescue package for Europe, as well as on the budget for the next seven years. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the differences in states’ interests. Although they managed to reach an agreement and avoid an economic collapse, they were close to a situation without an agreement, in which the crisis would continue, with no decision on remedial measures. The European economy may be at risk of (or already experiencing) secular stagnation, a period of low growth, and other threats that states cannot cope with on their own are looming on the horizon. At these times in history, when it is difficult to make clear plans for the future, it is worth reaching back into the past. Towards what, specifically? To the balance of the benefits, but also the costs, of European integration – to what it has led us to, and to the migration that took place in Europe, financial transfers that were not necessarily beneficial for all parties, and redistribution. Only after evaluating all these phenomena, processes and reactions can we say what kind of EU we want in the years ahead. Today, it is already certain that historians will draw a line under what happened before the pandemic, saying that COVID-19 led to the start of a new era. We sum up the old one, which is gone forever, and examine the lessons it offers for the future.