Angela Merkel supports Poland’s stance towards the energy-climate package, writes Dziennik.

Press reviewed by Agnieszka Bielawska

‘Half of the German government in Warsaw’ headlines Gazeta Wyborcza commenting the Tuesday Polish-German consultation in the Polish capital. The eight ministers accompanying Chancellor Angela Merkel point that Polish German relations have entered a truly favourable stage, adds the daily. Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Angela Merkel concentrated on the energy-climate package as to which both countries have certain reservations, fearing its implementation may bring about hikes of energy prices. The climate was there comments Gazeta Wyborcza, but declarations were cautious. Dziennik comments that Angela Merkel agreed to back the Polish postulate postponing the payments of Polish coal power plants for CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, Germany also demands backing its plan exempting German industry from ecological payments in return writes the paper. Rzeczpospolita on its part claims that the climate of the consultations was good, but no agreement in fact was reached and the oncoming EU summit in Brussels devoted to the energy-climate package may be a fiasco.

The same daily brings an extensive interview with the Dalai Lama, now visiting Poland. The Tibetan spiritual and political leader says he is aware that soon China will grow in power to become one of the world’s most important countries, and underlines that isolating such a power would be pointless. The Dalai Lama praises the Polish Premier, the French president and the German Chancellor for backing Tibet’s aspirations: ‘Tibet demands autonomy and not independence’ the Dalai Lama points in the interview for Rzeczpospolita.

In its culture section, Gazeta Wyborcza gets ready for today’s concert of Dionne Warwick. ‘The legend of soul is here,’ writes the paper, it is her first and only performance in Poland. In an interview for Gazeta Wyborcza the artist reveals that she sings because ‘God wanted it that way’.

And Rzeczpospolita bemoans the fading tradition of family Christmases. Data from travel agencies, collected by the daily, show that instead of preparing the traditional thirteen dishes for Christmas Eve dinner Poles chose to bask under the scorching sun of Egypt or Mexico. Canary Islands, Brazil or Sri Lanka are also popular destinations for Christmas holidays, writes the paper. According to those who chose to spend Christmas far away from Poland, it is not a case of lack of respect for tradition but rather a joint Christmas present for the whole family. Sociologists, however, point that it is an escape from the cold and from the Christmas shopping rush. It is also, unfortunately, a sign that the long cultivated Christmas tradition of family meetings is disappearing, they add.