SPEECH BY FCO MINISTER OF STATE, KEITH VAZ, TO THE FEDERATION OF POLES
IN GREAT BRITAIN, LONDON, MONDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2000
Mr Mokrzycki, Ambassador Komorowski, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am delighted to be the guest of the Federation of Poles, and in the company of so many friends of Poland tonight.
I am well aware from my own constituency of the importance of the Polish Community in the UK, and the vibrant contribution
you continue to make as British citizens at all levels of society.
I understand that the Federation represents more than 80 different Polish community organizations in the UK, as
well as speaking for a community of some 150,000. Tonight I would like to look forward to some of the shared challenges
and opportunities which Britain and Poland will face in an enlarged European Union.
But first I would like to say something about the nature of the relationship between Britain and Poland. Within
one week of my appointment as Minister for Europe last October, I was lucky enough to be paying my first official
visit to Poland. My visit reminded me that Britain and Poland have a close and very special relationship, in which
history plays a large part. The British people remember with pride and admiration the Polish contribution to the
fight against Nazi oppression, and the strength and resilience of the Polish people during the war years and thereafter.
We recall the crucial role which Polish airmen played in the defense of these islands during the Battle of Britain
- the 60th anniversary of which we will be commemorating this year. We also remember the equally important role
which the Polish Home Army underground played both in active resistance, and in providing vital intelligence for
the Allied war effort. In a festival organized by this Federation and the Bletchley Park Trust last July, the important
contribution which Poland made to the breaking of the Enigma codes was rightly recognized.
Later this year, the British-Polish Council will be organizing the unveiling in London of a statue of Poland's
wartime leader, General Sikorski. The British Government has contributed financially to the statue, and will be
fully associated with the unveiling ceremony. The unveiling will provide the opportunity both to honor the memory
of General Sikorski, and to pay tribute to the painful sacrifices made by so many Poles during the war years.
My visit to Poland also reminded me that we live in a very different Europe today. Poland has well and truly 'come
home', and returned to its rightful European vocation. The scale of the political, economic and social transformation
which has taken place in the last ten years in Poland and Central Europe should not be underestimated. Another
landmark was reached when Poland became a full member of NATO in March last year. Within a week of Poland joining,
we stood together in confronting the crisis in Kosovo. It was characteristic that Poland proved the most solid
of allies.
We enjoy excellent military cooperation, as evidenced by the fact that last year more British soldiers exercised
in Poland than anywhere else in the world.
Today, as Poland and its Central European neighbors prepare to join an enlarged European Union, we stand on the
threshold of a new era. As you know, the UK has long supported enlargement of the European Union to the East and
to the South. The process of enlargement has, I know, been a long and complex one.
But remember that negotiations with the first six countries - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia
and Cyprus - were only launched in March 1998. Since then, both the member states and the candidates have shown
real commitment to enlargement. That is why we wanted to see the process pushed even further forward at the Helsinki
European Council in December last year.
At Helsinki, the EU Heads of State and Government agreed to invite six more countries to begin negotiations. They
also reconfirmed Turkey's candidate status. Accession negotiations with Malta, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria
and Romania were formally launched in Brussels on 15 February.
I believe that enlargement will bring even greater stability, security and prosperity to Europe. I know that the
Polish government shares this view. Enlargement is the greatest challenge facing the European Union. But it is
one that we in the UK accept with relish. We want to see the clear benefits of EU membership extended to all of
the candidate countries as rapidly as possible.
EU membership will bring Poland, and other new Member States, the economic and political dividends that have been
available to the rest of Europe for many decades. It is only right that this should happen.
We in the UK are well aware of the efforts that have been put into reform since the momentous events of 1989. The
citizens of Central European countries don't need me to tell them how vital those reforms were. What I can say
is that the European Union should and will recognize those efforts, by maintaining the momentum of the enlargement
process.
We have already seen tremendous progress since the negotiations were opened in March 1998 in Cardiff, under the
UK Presidency of the European Union. In just two years, Poland and the EU have been able to provisionally close
negotiations in almost one third of the areas under discussion, and make real progress on another third. By the
end of this year, Poland will have opened negotiations on every aspect of the EU's laws and practices. Some of
those negotiations will include complex and challenging subjects.
But I can assure you that there is a strong political will in the UK, the European Union and of course in Poland
to see it join as soon as it and the EU are ready. Only last week the EU launched an Intergovernmental Conference
to make sure its institutions are ready for enlargement from the end of 2002. The UK has supported a positive and
focussed agenda for the conference, to make sure that it deals with the core issues affecting enlargement. We shall
play a full part in the institutional reform process and the negotiations which are now underway.
Poland has also set itself a target date for readiness to join the European Union of December 2002. The date is
ambitious, but Poland is a dynamic country committed to accession. As I said in Warsaw last October, I want to
see Poland in the first group of countries to join the European Union. I can assure you that the UK will do everything
it can to make sure that it is.
I was very pleased to see, so soon after my visit, that the European Commission confirmed my impression of Polish
readiness. The Commission's Progress Report, which came out in mid-October 1999, showed that Poland was making
real progress towards accession. I am very glad that the UK has contributed to this progress. Poland has for example
selected the UK to provide advice and expertise in nine projects under the EU's institutional 'Twinning' program.
UK experts are now working alongside their counterparts in Poland to develop its institutions in areas such as
Justice, Home Affairs and Agriculture. And Polish officials - for example in environmental issues - are coming
on inward secondments to UK government departments. I am delighted that the UK can share its expertise in this
way.
During my visit to Poland I launched a UK - Poland Action Plan to bring together the work that our two countries
are doing to prepare for Poland's accession to the European Union. This builds on the L100 million committed by
the British Government's Know-How Fund to projects in Poland since 1989, and the important work of the British
Council.
A major new initiative launched under the Action Plan was the UK - Poland Conference on Local Government in Gdansk
last November, in which my Ministerial Colleague Beverly Hughes participated. As a direct follow-up to this, we
have arranged for a group of senior elected representatives and officials from eight of Poland's sixteen administrative
regions to visit the UK in March to exchange experience on local government reform and access to EU regional funding.
I want to make sure that we keep up these strong links with all our Central European partners, pushing forward
with more joint initiatives, and pooling our knowledge and resources to help shape the future of the European Union.
There is still a lot of work ahead. Not least in areas such as agriculture and the environment. As the Polish Prime
Minister told the Polish Parliament last week, there are 120 major pieces of legislation to pass in the next two
years. This is an enormous task for any legislature and will require effective cooperation between Government and
Opposition, as well as determined implementation.
We are aware from our own experience that economic reform can sometimes have painful social consequences. This
makes it all the more important for us to work together in tackling these challenges. The UK will do all it can
to support the efforts of Poland and the other candidate countries to prepare for early EU accession. As agreed
at Helsinki, we continue to believe that each candidate country should proceed at its own pace, and that progress
be judged on objective criteria as outlined in the Commission's recent progress reports. The European Union and
its future Member States are already working together effectively.
Membership will increase our ability to deal with real issues that affect all of our citizens. Enlargement will
bring co-operation to fight cross-border crime, help protect the environment, and strengthen European defense.
Through expansion of the Single Market, it will also bring clear commercial benefits to both EU and Central European
companies and their employees.
Britain and Poland are increasingly strong economic partners. British firms have invested nearly L2 billion in
Poland, and that figure is increasing. And Poland is our most important export market in Central Europe, with two
way trade exceeding L2 billion last year.
The British Government, under the leadership of Tony Blair, believes passionately in the enlargement of the EU.
It is only through enlargement that we can overcome the unnatural division of our continent, and ensure that political
stability takes root throughout the whole of Europe.
The Polish people have made Poland into a thriving democracy, ready and able to play its part in the European Union.
I look forward to seeing it play that part, and soon. Our common task now is 'to win the peace', to ensure that
war never again breaks out in Europe and to bring the economic benefits of peace to the entire continent.
Britain and Poland should now seize the opportunity to work together, and with other countries in the region, to
spread the benefit of our joint experience. Poland and its Central European neighbours suffered much from the division
of Europe. But ten years ago the Polish people set in train the historic series of events throughout Europe which
led to the collapse of Communism.
There is still important work to be done to complete the task started then, and to strengthen democracy, stability
and economic prosperity throughout an undivided Europe. We need Poland alongside Britain in an enlarged, confident
and outward-looking European Union to complete that vital task.
Cllr Mike Oborski
Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland
consul@oboofcom.demon.co.uk
http://www.polishconsulate.org.uk