GAZETA WYBORCZA looks ahead to a tough spring and summer for Polish soldiers in Afghanistan.
Press reviewed by Slawek Szefs.
A planned American offensive is to push the Taliban away from Kabul and from the south of the country. This will force them to withdraw through the Ghazni province controlled by the 1600 strong Polish contingent. The Poles shall have no other choice than to directly face the retreating Taliban forces. It will be a tough task for the Polish troops, but there's not much that can be done to help them as my soldiers will simultaneously be engaged in other combat operations, frankly admits the US commander in the region, colonel David Haight. The Taliban are coming, warns a frontpage headline in Gazeta Wyborcza.
RZECZPOSPOLITA alarms that Polish companies and local governments cannot make use of over 17 billion euro in subsidies from Brussels. The reason? Lack of relevant EU as well as Polish regulations concerning new principles governing such asistance schemes. Meanwhile, many tourist related projects, airports or financial service centers have to keep waiting for the necessary funds, renegotiating terms with contractors and at the same time losing potential investors. And so the much needed funds remain just a virtual promise because of legislative and bureaucratic red tape.
DZIENNIK informs about government plans to accelerate the pace of Poland's adoption of the common European currency and go through with ERM2 preparations regardless of the stand of Law and Justice, the major opposition party. One of the basic requirements of the process would be a mandatory change in the Constitution allowing for departure from the Polish zloty and officially substituting it with the euro. But the finance minister said the cabinet of Donald Tusk would be strogly intent on finding alternate solutions, should Law and Justice persist in resisting the amendments. Concrete moves have already been undertaken through commissioning expert opinions on potential possibilities of legally bypassing the requirement in the spirit of 'where there is a will, there's a way'.
The Warsaw city daily ZYCIE WARSZAWY focuses on what shall continue the absolute nightmare of the capital's drivers and municipal transport authorities for the next five months - an overhaul of one of its major traffic arteries, the so-called W-Z route. It cuts the city on an East-West axis connecting left and right bank districts of Warsaw. The route's main element, a bridge across the Vistula river has just been closed for long overdue repair works, so detours through other bridges had to be established completely disorganizing the already heavy flow of rush hour traffic. First results were painfully experienced Monday morning with many regular users of the W-Z route arriving very late at work. Time to change commuting habits...