Poland's five years in the EU – fears that have not come true; Israeli artists propose a new way of celebrating the anniversary of the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising; will Poland be ready for Euro 2012 champrionships?
Weekly press reviewed by Krystyna Kolosowska
Polityka sums up Poland’s five years in the European Union in a special 30-page supplement. And its starts with recalling the fears, which have not come true. Today it seems almost unbelievable what nonsense some politicians talked before the accession referendum. They argued the EU would strip Poles of their national identity and religion, that foreigners would buy out their land and take their jobs. Many, if not most, rural activists predicted a collapse of agriculture and in effect famine. Nothing of this has come true. The past years have been perhaps the best in Poland’s history. It so happens that Poland is marking the fifth anniversary of its entry into the EU at the time of the deep global financial crisis. EU institutions have been striving to cushion its effects but all of us are aware that the crisis is a major test of European values and rules. It is not clear yet whether the EU will emerge from it stronger or weakened by protectionism and competing national egoisms, says Polityka.
Tygodnik Powszechny reports that the Israeli artistic group Public Movement proposed to mark the anniversary of the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising in a different way this year than before. This past week it organized a street march, inviting the people of Warsaw to join the Israeli participants – and as many as 250 did. Secondly, stopovers made during the walk through the former ghetto site acquired a new meaning. At one point a Muslim prayer was said, at another songs associated with the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 could be heard and at Zamenhof street texts were said in Esperanto, the language invented by that Polish scientist of Jewish origin. The weekly praises this idea as well as the organization of the Polish Year in Israel, which has done a lot to help young artists from Poland and Israel to establish closer contacts.
Wprost looks at the Polish scene after the recent fact finding visit by UEFA chief Michel Platini here. Though he sounded optimistic, it is clear that Poland will rather fail to link with motorways all the cities where Euro 2012 games will be played. But the construction of stadiums is proceeding as planned. The preparation of airports for the massive influx of football fans is also going on fast. However, almost all road investments connected with Euro 2012 are still in the planning stage. Poland wants to build over 800 km of motorways and 386 km of expressways for the Euro championships. The most troublesome task is to obtain documents on the impact the planned roads will have on the environment. The modernization of the railway network is also delayed. Eight railway stations have to be modernized or developed, but no permits have been issued yet.
Solidarnosc sounds an alarm that Poles may feel the shortage of electricity if no new investments are launched soon. Brown coal deposits next to the biggest power plants are being depleted. Poland, which obtains most of its electric energy from brown coal and which has its biggest deposits in the world, is doing nothing to develop its extraction. At the present extraction pace, Poland’s brown coal deposits can last for the next several hundred years. An important argument is that energy generated from this coal is cheaper than from hard coal and gas. True, coal burning pollutes the atmosphere. Open cast mining leaves behind huge holes in the earth, which can be seen even on satellite pictures. But today modern burning methods are used, which reduce the harmful impact on the environment, while former open cast mines are recultivated and may serve as a tourist attraction, Solidarnosc argues.
Poland has ten holidays, which are work free days, in addition to Easter and the feast of the Pentecost, which are celebrated on Sunday. It is a myth that most Europeans may envy Poles the abundance of holidays, a result of attachment to religion and national traditions, says Newsweek. Actually Poland is behind the lay Czech republic, which has 12 holidays, Catholic Portugal with 13, Lutheran Iceland with 14, not speaking of multi religious Bosnia and Herzegovina, which have 14 holidays a year. The civic Committee campaigning for the restoration of the Epiphany as another work free day says the argument that Poles have too many feasts to celebrate is unjustified. A petition with one million signatures of people who want the feast, liquidated under communist rule, back was sent to the Parliament. But economists are sounding an alarm – another holiday will cost about four billion zlotys.