In February the southern
city of Kraków hosts an informal gathering of NATO defence ministers.
The word informal may be slightly misleading, as security is obviously
going to be kept high. However, an exhibition is to be held in the NATO
Heaquarters in Brussels as a way of showing off Kraków to the top brass
of the organisation.
John Beauchamp reports
In the second half
of February, NATO defence ministers will be descending upon the southern
city of Kraków for their informal meeting. The meeting’s host, Poland’s
Defence Minister Bogdan Klich, himself a Cracovian, will wait for his
guests, including the meeting’s chairman and NATO Secretary General,
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
The meeting, which
will see hundreds of reporters, TV crews, radio journalists including
yours truly, is the first one of its kind in Poland’s southern city.
And what better place could have been chosen. Which is why the Polish
delegation to NATO in Brussels has organised an exhibition of 30 photographs
from the city, authored by Wiesław Majka, a local photographer.
The idea of the exhibition
is a kind of open invitation from Kraków to all at NATO. As the date
of the informal meeting approaches, it is a way of showing Kraków to
rest of the NATO staff who will not be making the trip. But don’t
the spires of St. Mary’s and the banks of Wawel hill look ever-so-tempting?
It has been trumpeted in the local media here in Kraków that tourism
numbers have been dropping, people are spending whatever money they
have somewhere else, cheap flights aren’t that cheap any more, and
generally the city has found itself in a bit of a quandry, not knowing
how to get tourists back. Year after year Kraków applies new field
tactics to promote the city, only to realise that it’s wasting money.
The people from NATO may like the city, but won’t they find the airport
a little too small? Well, it’s the military contingent in Balice that
is refusing to let civilian airside operations expand, so let’s not
dwell on that matter for too long…
But back to Brussels,
and the exhibition. Showing Kraków in thirty technicolor photographs
can only be a good thing, but if the meeting is supposed to be informal,
maybe the city or the Polish contingent in NATO HQ in Brussels should
provide a little something extra? After all, as I said Bogdan Klich,
Poland’s defence minister is from the city: maybe he could write it
himself? Welcome to Kraków, go here for the best coffee, there for
the best music, have a great time. What’s really on the agenda though?
A lock-in at the Sheraton hotel… Oh well.