Joint meeting of the Programme Boards of the Czech-Polish Forum

The Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw was the venue for a joint meeting of the Programme Councils of the Polish-Czech Forum on 4 December. The meeting was chaired by Vit Dostál and Wojciech Konończuk, presidents of the Councils from both sides of the border. The opening speeches were delivered by Jan Marian, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and Marek Prawda, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.

The discussion on Polish-Czech cooperation in a changing international environment was preceded by an introduction by Olaf Osica, Director of the Office of Strategy and Analysis, Warsaw City Hall, and David Štulík, Special Envoy for the Eastern Partnership, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

In turn, the panel discussion ‘Poles and Czechs getting closer’ was preceded by statements by Mirosław Jasiński, former Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Prague, long-time activist in the Polish-Czech-Slovak Solidarity movement, and Renata Putzlacher, poet, author of song lyrics, adaptations and plays, Polish language teacher.

The accompanying event was a discussion around the book ‘Probouzení. Kde je místo Česka v měnícím se světě’ (Awakening. The place of the Czech Republic in a changing world) by Martin Ehl, head of the international department of the daily newspaper Hospodářské Noviny and member of the Czech-Polish Forum.

Bogdan Kasperek, director of the office of the "Olza" Association for Development and Regional Cooperation, participated in the meeting and represented issues of importance to the Cieszyn Silesia Euroregion.