RZECZPOSPOLITA looks with much concern at the future of the Schengen agreement which abolished internal border controls within the European Union.

‘Schengen in danger’ is the frontpage headline in the daily, which writes that with over 100,000 illegal immigrants crossing internal EU borders last year, the latest waves of immigrants from North Africa and the forthcoming election campaigns in several countries have encouraged France and Italy to tighten border controls. Several other countries are to follow suit. RZECZPOSPOLITA quotes an expert from the European Policy Centre in Brussels as saying that the very idea of free travel in the EU is being questioned. In its editorial RZECZPOSPOLITA is critical of all attempts to depart from the Schengen agreement.  As things stand now, the functioning of the Schengen area can be suspended for up to 30 days if so-called public order is threatened. In practical terms, it applies to sporting events and the protests of anti-globalists. To include illegal immigration under the category of extraordinary circumstances is a very risky step, which could lead to the liquidation of the Schengen area, writes the daily.

GAZETA WYBORCZA devotes much space to a setback for Poland in its dispute with Lithuania concerning the spelling of Polish names.  The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled that EU member states have the competence to decide how names are spelled in their civil documents. In its comment, GAZETA WYBORCZA says that the verdict of the European court is proof that painstaking negotiations with Vilnius are better than sabre-rattling. This is a less spectacular approach but there is no other way to improve the situation of the Polish minority in Lithuania. The Lithuanian Parliament’s ‘NO’  on the spelling of Polish names according to Polish rules is illogical but it is clear now that the matter will not be resolved on the EU forum or in EU tribunals, GAZETA WYBORCZA concludes.

The 30th anniversary of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II is taken up by several papers. RZECZPOSPOLITA writes about an on-going investigation into the ‘kill the pope’ plot carried out by the National Remembrance Institute. A report by the West German intelligence that has come come to light speaks of  the KGB as the mastermind behind the assassination. The daily quotes Cardinal Dziwisz, who was at the Pope’s side 30 years ago. “I am convinced that it was a miracle that he survived the attack,” he said. The Catholic daily NASZ DZIENNIK has two interesting interviews. Professor Turowski, a member of the six-person medical team who treated the Pope after the assassination attempt, recalls how the the Pope kept on reflecting on the fact that the attack occurred on the day and on the hour of  Fatima apparitions.

In another interview for NASZ DZIENNIK, Professor Paul Kengor od Grove City College in Pennsylvania talks about the close relationship between the Polish Pope and President Ronald Reagan.  They both committed themselves to ‘relegate communism to the rubbish heap of history’ as the US president described it, and that’s what they did, professor Kengor told NASZ DZIENNIK. (mk)