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Post by coco on Nov 9, 2009 22:26:50 GMT 1
I still say, never trust the Germans, ever. But that is just me, and I hate what they did to Poland, and her people in WWII. Mike I hate to tell you this: You may have German Ancestors years back, Don't forget German settlers have been living in Poland for thousand years ago. The ways you acted and behaves is German. I know German people are very nice and good to Poland and have helping Poland well. And also Russian people have built village of Krakow too. You aren't nice. There are 2 kinds of people all over the world. Good or Bad. Quit talking about German and Russian. You might have Russian Ancestors living in Krakow. Read books about Poland like I told you before. |
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Post by valpomike on Nov 9, 2009 23:06:11 GMT 1
I am just 100% pure Polish, all the way back. My family, both sides come from near Warsaw, and just north and south of it, no German or Russian in me.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 9, 2009 23:19:12 GMT 1
And also Russian people have built village of Krakow too. Quit talking about German and Russian. You might have Russian Ancestors living in Krakow. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D That is really great news. I l always suspected I am partly Russian. And Jewish, too. Thanks. |
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 9, 2009 23:21:35 GMT 1
The Germans are generally very likeable, easy going people. They do however generally have this unnice feature than some of them deeply dislike us, the Poles. These two character traits contradict each other. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D I work with students. They don`t care either about Russians or Germans. They care only about their careers. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D |
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Post by valpomike on Nov 10, 2009 2:03:16 GMT 1
They may not know anyone who was killed in the war, or care.
It is hard to forget, when you know people who went through this bad times, and lost family and fiends, because of greed.
Mike
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Post by coco on Nov 10, 2009 10:46:16 GMT 1
And also Russian people have built village of Krakow too. Quit talking about German and Russian. You might have Russian Ancestors living in Krakow. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D That is really great news. I l always suspected I am partly Russian. And Jewish, too. Thanks. Be proud of who you are, your ancestors really built Poland for their younger generations. No matter what nationalities you are. I found out my father's side is Austrian, German and Polish. Maybe Hungarian too. I couldn't believe this. I got used to it. I am proud to tell you all. My father was born in Chicago, IL. But his parents were born in Galicia Village. I heard it is very beautiful in Nowy Targ! I have seen pictures and I am proud of my ancestors back then. |
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Post by coco on Nov 10, 2009 10:51:32 GMT 1
I am just 100% pure Polish, all the way back. My family, both sides come from near Warsaw, and just north and south of it, no German or Russian in me. Mike Get use being German and Russian. There aren't any Polish people then. Who knows Polish left Poland in early 1800's. German and Russian settled in Warsaw. That is why alot of Polish people aren't happy because no one didn't tell them properly history. No one isn't 100% Polish. Look at all Polish People who have different nationalities and are still beautiful. Some are light skins, medium color skins and dark color skins. That should explains you why. |
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Post by valpomike on Nov 10, 2009 18:25:31 GMT 1
But I am, if the only one, 100% Polish.
Mike
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Post by tufta on Nov 10, 2009 20:39:39 GMT 1
The Germans are generally very likeable, easy going people. They do however generally have this unnice feature than some of them deeply dislike us, the Poles. These two character traits contradict each other. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Not at all!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D |
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Post by tufta on Nov 10, 2009 20:40:33 GMT 1
I am just 100% pure Polish, all the way back. My family, both sides come from near Warsaw, and just north and south of it, no German or Russian in me. Mike Mike, aren't you American? |
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Post by coco on Nov 10, 2009 22:46:21 GMT 1
I am just 100% pure Polish, all the way back. My family, both sides come from near Warsaw, and just north and south of it, no German or Russian in me. Mike Mike, aren't you American? Yeah, you got him all right. Mike keep on changing his nationality. I thought he is African. Just watch Mike will be calling me African lady. |
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 11, 2009 0:09:33 GMT 1
Who knows Polish left Poland in early 1800's. I heard they left for Mongolia? It`s good you are putting it straight now. Thank you. Correct. Just watch Mike will be calling me African lady. We wil call you the African Queen. Will it be better?  |
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 11, 2009 0:30:01 GMT 1
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 11, 2009 0:42:11 GMT 1
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D That is really great news. I l always suspected I am partly Russian. And Jewish, too. Thanks. Be proud of who you are, Please, don`t call me who you, it is not nice. Yes, it is true. I couldn`t believe when I learned that apart from Russian and Jewish roots, I also have Lithuanian and Mongolian genes. It was a real shock to me. Stay tuned. Soon I am going to post many photos from Zakopane which is near Nowy Targ. |
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Post by valpomike on Nov 11, 2009 2:15:52 GMT 1
My body is here in the USA, but my heart is in Poland, where I think I belong, also.
Mike
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Post by coco on Nov 12, 2009 1:01:43 GMT 1
My body is here in the USA, but my heart is in Poland, where I think I belong, also. Mike I heard Poland is calling you but not USA. What happening to you? Is this why you moving to Poland. Everybody, beware of this Mike! Good Luck to All Of You! Heh, heh, LOL! |
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Post by valpomike on Nov 12, 2009 2:01:16 GMT 1
Arlene,
Please don't judge, since you have never been to Poland, and if you had, you would understand.
Looks like you are again, starting to pick on me, and I don't want this, or to upset you, since I know you can be a nice person, when you want to be.
Mike
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Post by coco on Nov 12, 2009 19:35:42 GMT 1
Arlene, Please don't judge, since you have never been to Poland, and if you had, you would understand. Looks like you are again, starting to pick on me, and I don't want this, or to upset you, since I know you can be a nice person, when you want to be. Mike Do Me Favor: Buy one way ticket to Poland. And Stay there. I will not visit Poland. If I do, I will do it privately., |
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Post by valpomike on Nov 13, 2009 1:28:58 GMT 1
They may not even let you in, with your thinking, and how much you don't like Poland, and her people. When I do move, it will be a one way ticket.
Mike
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Post by valpomike on Nov 13, 2009 22:38:22 GMT 1
Arlene,
That was just a joke. They would be proud to have you visit, and you should, since we are not getting any younger, do it now.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 15, 2009 17:37:42 GMT 1
Lisbon Treaty Ratified
Warsaw Business Journal
11/6/09
This week the last holdout, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, signed the Lisbon Treaty into law. The Treaty is now expected to take legal effect on December 1, 2009, nearly eight years after EU leaders first sat down at the Laeken Summit in 2001 to discuss the need for a new treaty.
The Lisbon Treaty, also referred to as the Reform Treaty, will give the EU "legal personality" and streamline the rule-making process in Brussels.
Under the new voting structure the number of votes apportioned to each country will be based upon population. As a result Poland will see its voting power in the Council reduced. Other changes include the creation of a more permanent EU Presidency, with the term in office lasting 2 1/2 years, as opposed to the current 6 month rotating presidency. The Polish Parliament, together with the parliaments of each member country, however, will in fact gain influence over EU legislation under the Reform Treaty.
Previously the EU did not need to consult national parliaments. Now all of this has changed. The parliaments of member states will now be able to object to draft EU legislation before its enactment. Many other changes abound, including the creation of a European Public Prosecutor, initially empowered to prosecute financial crimes against EU interests, with the understanding that this agency's scope of powers would most likely be expanded to include criminal (penal) crimes as well. Previously the prosecution of such crimes was limited to member states.
In mid-November Sweden, the current holder of the revolving presidency, is expected to call a special summit of EU leaders to quickly take the necessary steps to implement the changes called for by the Reform Treaty.
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 15, 2009 22:00:30 GMT 1
Poland calls for job interviews for EU top appointments
ANDREW RETTMAN
10.11.2009 @ 10:01 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Poland has made a bid to give smaller EU countries more power in the EU president selection process by calling for candidates to hold job interviews in front of the 27 EU leaders.
"It is proposed that the election of the future President of the European Council is preceded by a discussion of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States during which the candidates would present their vision of how their tasks would be conducted," Warsaw has said in a fresh position paper seen by EU observer.
The Polish model could see Belgium's Herman van Rompuy, a popular candidate, grilled by EU leaders (Photo: European Council)
The appointment of the new EU foreign relations chief should follow the same format, but with the 27 EU foreign ministers also brought in to the chamber.
The Polish proposal underlined that under the Lisbon Treaty the final decision is to be made by a qualified majority vote, in which every EU country has a say in proportion to the size of its population.
"The approval procedure should be as transparent and democratic as possible. This will enhance the consensus surrounding those candidates who are eventually chosen," it explained.
The ideas were circulated to EU capitals on Monday (9 November), amid expectations that the Swedish EU presidency will shortly call a summit to decide the two appointments and the make-up of the new EU commission.
Popular wisdom has it that the top jobs will be decided in a classic EU stitch-up between Germany, France and the UK, with each time any of the big leaders meet for a bilateral dinner prompting speculation that a secret deal is being made.
Smaller states such as the Benelux countries have already made their mark by calling for a modest, chairman-like EU president instead of an international big-hitter however, in a line of thinking publicly approved by Berlin.
EU officials, no matter how senior, are in theory loyal only to Brussels and the EU treaties.
But top appointments are a matter of national prestige, while individual politicians with deep roots in national administrations in practice co-operate more closely with former colleagues and channel information more readily to their old friends.
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Post by Bonobo on Nov 18, 2009 20:29:59 GMT 1
Neighbors now see united Germany as benign
Wed Nov 4, 2009
By Paul Taylor
PARIS (Reuters) - After its first unification in 1871, Germany saw itself as "surrounded by enemies," against which it unleashed two world wars in the 20th century.
Today, reunited Germany is ringed by friends who are fellow members of the European Union and the NATO defense alliance, and mistrust is gradually fading due to conciliatory diplomacy and economic integration.
Suspicion of German power and intentions still tinges politics in Poland and the Czech Republic 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, even though the neighbors mostly regard the new Germany as a benign and dependable partner.
Conservative nationalist leaders in Warsaw and Prague have invoked historical grievances with the Germans in their conduct of EU negotiations, as have Czech communists, but those concerns have a dwindling resonance in the younger generation.
In the latest such incident, Eurosceptical Czech President Vaclav Klaus demanded guarantees that the EU's Lisbon treaty would not undermine 1945 decrees expropriating expelled ethnic Germans and Hungarians as a condition for signing the document. A poll showed 65 percent of Czechs backed Klaus on the issue.
"People are afraid of the Sudeten German property claims. Deep in their souls they feel that justifying confiscations today could be a problem," wrote Czech analyst Bohumil Doelzal.
During the treaty negotiations in 2007, then Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski suggested his country should be given more voting power in the EU to compensate for millions of Poles killed by the Nazis in World War Two.
"I am very surprised by some people's view that you can't return to questions of history," Kaczynski, whose twin brother Lech is still Poland's president, told the German daily Die Welt. "The Jews also return to this question, to the question of the Holocaust. Does that mean others may do it but not Poland?"
Many analysts see the central Europeans' pursuit of close military co-operation with the United States, and their support for its 2003 invasion of Iraq, as a quest for insurance against a resurgent Germany, as well as for protection against Russia.
"FEARS WILL FADE"
Reunited Germany did much to calm worries that it might throw its weight around in central Europe by actively promoting its eastern neighbors' bids to join the EU and NATO.
A survey conducted by the Warsaw-based Institute of Public Affairs (ISP) in August showed 57 percent of Poles now think that relations between Poland and Germany are good or very good.
"Historical grievances will drag on for some time. It's inevitable. But Poles increasingly feel they are being treated as partners by the Germans, so the fears will fade with time," said Agnieszka Lada, an expert on Polish-German ties at ISP.
German firms invested heavily after the fall of communism in the emerging markets of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, dubbed Germany's "extended production line," creating quality jobs and weaving a web of economic interdependence.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has worked hard to smooth feathers ruffled by her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, notably over a planned Russian-German gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea that will cut out central Europe. A Polish minister compared that deal to the 1939 Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact that was a prelude to the invasion and carve-up of Poland.
Western neighbors such as France and the Netherlands were also anxious in 1989 at the prospect of a more powerful united Germany coming to dominate the continent.
"There was a fear that a large Germany would adopt a new leading role in Europe, but that that has not taken place," said Alfred Pijper of the Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations.
"It is not dominating, and the German reluctance to be a leader made room for smaller states such as the Netherlands and Belgium to have a role in European affairs," he said.
France long resisted increasing reunited Germany's voting power in the EU to reflect its increased population. Paris finally accepted the principle in 2004. But at the insistence of Poland, the change in the voting system will only take effect in 2014 -- a quarter of a century after the fall of the Wall.
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Post by Bonobo on Dec 1, 2009 23:48:50 GMT 1
Germany skips decision on controversial post-war museum DPA
2009-11-18
Berlin - Germany's government skipped making any decision Wednesday on whether to appoint a controversial refugee leader, Erika Steinbach, 66, to the board of a planned Berlin museum. Poland objects fiercely to Steinbach, who is a legislator with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), joining the board of the memorial to the expulsions of millions of ethnic Germans from eastern Europe after the Second World War.
Guido Westerwelle, foreign minister and leader of the Free Democrat Party, has threatened to veto any bid to put Steinbach on the board of the federally funded museum because this would strain relations with Warsaw.
He and Merkel said the issue was not discussed at a cabinet meeting Wednesday.
After coaxing from Berlin, Poland had endorsed the museum project, provided that Steinbach, who originally suggested it, is not involved. Poles fear it may sully the memory of their war dead or even incriminate the nations that pushed the Germans out.
As tension grew this week, Steinbach's organization, the Federation of Expellees, shied away from plans, delayed since March, to nominate her as one of the group's three delegates to the 13- member management board.
With Westerwelle alongside, Merkel said it had been CDU election policy to let the federation nominate its own representatives. But since the expellees had not nominated a person to the one vacancy, the cabinet meeting near Berlin had not discussed the topic.
The refugee group had publicly appealed to Merkel before the cabinet meeting to take the initiative so the nomination could proceed. The rest of the board was appointed in April.
The museum is expected to depict how 14 million ethnic Germans were driven out of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and other nations in the final stages of the war and its aftermath, with 2 million dying. Refugee treks and poverty in Germany added to the ordeal.
************ ********* ********* *********
Merkel's foreign policy headache, Erika Steinbach
By Dave Graham
BERLIN, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's most striking problem at the start of her new government is not the economy, an unpopular war or the opposition: it's a 66-year-old, 6-foot blonde in her own Christian Democrats, Erika Steinbach.
Dubbed "a red rag for Warsaw" by a leading German magazine, Steinbach has become a touchstone for Berlin's efforts to heal the wounds left by World War Two, notably with Poland.
A campaigner for Germans forced to flee westwards when Germany lost territory after the Nazis' defeat, Steinbach is at the centre of a tug-of-war over whether she should be granted a seat on the board of a museum dedicated to their plight.
Her lobbying for the expellees, whose families make up a large chunk of Germany's population, has raised hackles in Poland, where she has been vilified as a Nazi apologist seeking to portray Germans as victims of a war their leaders began.
Steinbach, born in German-occupied Poland where her father served in the Luftwaffe, argues Germany has dishonoured the memory of the expellees too long, and once tried to make Polish EU membership conditional on paying compensation for them.
Merkel's new coalition partners, the Free Democrats (FDP), have said they will block Steinbach's appointment to the museum she has spent a decade trying to create, piling pressure on the chancellor to support the FDP or risk angering Poland.
However, the League of Expellees, the driving force behind the museum that Steinbach heads, insisted she must take her seat on the board, and urged Merkel this week to back their nominee during her cabinet talks in Meseberg on Wednesday.
Steinbach has won the support of the Christian Social Union -- the Bavarian-based sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) -- as well as a sizeable group within the CDU.
Yet to the alarm of Germany's neighbours, she is championed by some seeking to mitigate Hitler's responsibility for the war, and has been a hate figure among Poles since she voted against recognising Germany's current border with Poland in 1990.
A survey published by Polish paper Rzeczpospolita in March showed Steinbach, who has often recounted how she fled westwards with her family after the war, was the second most feared foreign politician in Poland after Russia's Vladimir Putin.
It also showed that Steinbach, a former violinist who compared the previous Polish government to German neo-Nazis, was held in far greater suspicion than German government policy.
Her notoriety in Poland, where she has been likened to Richard Williamson, a British-born bishop who cast doubt on the Holocaust, has prompted some in Germany to observe she is better known across the border than in her homeland.
However, commentators say Merkel cannot afford to ignore her and is most likely to avoid taking a decision, leaving the board seat unoccupied in a compromise to save face at home and abroad.
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Post by Bonobo on Dec 18, 2009 23:45:09 GMT 1
Poland has received enormous financial support from the European Union in 2009, writes the Rzeczpospolita daily.
The country will spend almost 5.5 billion euro from EU subsidies this year, which is two thirds more than in 2008. Thanks to EU funds and money from the budget, Poland has managed to make investments worth over 8 billion euro.
Most of the EU financial sources were devoted to the development of infrastructure – roads, railways and airports, as well as modernization of universities, support for small and medium-size companies and vocational training for the unemployed.
“EU funds helped create a lot of work places,” comments Ernest Pytlarczyk from BRE Bank. High European subsidies, which equal 3 percent of Poland’s GDP, also helped boost Polish economy and avoid recession, writes Rzeczpospolita. Since Poland’s access to the European Union in 2004, the country has received almost 16 billion euro.
However, higher EU subsidies result in higher budget outlay. Poland needs to add at least 15 euro cents to every euro from the EU purse, which increases the country’s debt.
The race for the Presidential Palace has just started, writes Metro daily distributed free of charge.The Democratic Left Alliance will announce tomorrow its candidate for presidential elections scheduled next year. It will probably be Jerzy Szmajdzinski, a former defence minister, known for rather moderate views, the newspaper says. If Szmajdzinski is chosen as the leftwing candidate, it will be a visible sign that members of the Democratic Left Alliance support older and more experienced politicians as opposed to young generation politicians, such as the head of the party Grzegorz Napieralski, who has recently been criticized for forming an unofficial coalition with the right-wing Law and Justice party to seize power in the state-owned radio and television stations, writes Metro.
The Democratic Left Alliance wants to win the votes of the lower middle class and the poor. It promises easy access to health care and education, to fight poverty and unemployment and diminish the role of the Catholic Church in Poland.
Polish children who live abroad do not learn Polish, writes Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. According to a report published by the Foreign Ministry, there are not enough Polish schools in countries where there is a substantial number of ex-pats. The report shows that the best countries to live in for access to the Polish language are Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Sweden, where Poles enjoy the same rights as the natives and local authorities support Polish expat organizations.
Swedish Education Ministry even employs Polish teachers to make it possible for Polish kids to learn their mother tongue. Eastern countries are the least hospitable for Poles, writes Dziennik, because of severe living conditions and rather unsteady political situations.
But - in the East and in the West - there are not enough Polish schools. As a result, Polish children not only do not learn the language, but also adopt a false picture of Polish history. In France, for example, they are taught that the Warsaw Rising was the same as the Warsaw Getto Uprising and in Germany that Frederic Chopin and Maria Sklodowska-Curie were French, not Polish.
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Post by valpomike on Dec 19, 2009 4:14:59 GMT 1
There go the Germans again. I did not say this, you did.
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 6, 2010 0:16:45 GMT 1
Eastern European tourists flock to Zakopane
05.01.2010 13:33
One-in-four of tourists in Poland’s premier winter resort, Zakopane, at this time of year come from Russia, Belarus or Ukraine.
Poland’s Tatra Mountains have been attracting a growing number of tourists from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, who like to spend the Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christmas in such popular destinations as Zakopane.
According to the Zakopane Promotion Buerau, visitors from the East constitute about 25 percent of all hotel guests in the city. Most are well-off people, who stay in hotels representing high standards.
The Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas two weeks later than the Roman Catholic Church. There is no Orthodox temple in the region, but a mass will be celebrated specially for Orthodox Church believers in an old church in Zakopane on January 7.
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Post by tufta on Jan 6, 2010 14:27:49 GMT 1
'The Banker's" award of European finance mnister of the year goes to... Jacek Rostowski of Poland! www.thebanker.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/7044/Finance_Minister_of_the_Year_-_regional_winners.html?current_page=2Finance Minister of the Year, Europe
Jacek Rostowski, Poland
In terms of economic performance, Poland in 2009 is hard to beat in the European context. It was the only EU country to record positive gross domestic product growth for the year as a whole, at about 1.4% according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Continued investment inflows have played a part in this performance, and finance minister Jacek Rostowski's calm and astute handling of the global financial crisis helped to sustain investor confidence. He grasped ahead of other governments in central and eastern Europe the significance of the International Monetary Fund's new fast-track flexible credit line (FCL). With Poland already meeting the FCL's pre-set qualification criteria of a strong fiscal policy framework, Mr Rostowski understood and advocated its adoption as a precautionary market reassurance, rather than a bail-out.
Sure enough, the $20.6bn FCL for Poland approved by the IMF in May 2009 helped to stabilise Polish assets and the zloty exchange rate, minimising further fall-out from global volatility. And by the end of 2009, the credit line remained entirely undrawn, as per Mr Rostowski's original stated intention.
The strength of Poland's policy framework itself stems partly from Mr Rostowski's overhaul of its previously vague approach to entering the eurozone. An arbitrary target of joining by 2012, without a clear strategy to attain the target, is to be replaced by policies specifically aimed at achieving the Maastricht entry criteria on the budget deficit and debt level.
Of course, the financial crisis has delayed a more concerted attempt at fiscal consolidation, with the budget deficit set to reach at least 6% of GDP in 2009. But Mr Rostowski already has forceful plans to correct the deficit, including an ambitious privatisation programme. He personally participated in investor roadshows for one of the state assets on that list, the power company PGE, and the outcome of its initial public offering (IPO) is very positive for hitting privatisation revenue targets. The sale brought in $2.1bn, pricing at the top end of the bankers' guidance range, and becoming Europe's largest IPO of the year. |
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 8, 2010 23:19:05 GMT 1
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Post by tufta on Jan 15, 2010 15:24:34 GMT 1
Thanks to Poland, the alliance will defend the Baltics
IN A crunch, would NATO stand by its weakest members—the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? After five years of dithering , the answer now seems to be yes, with a decision in principle by the alliance to develop formal contingency plans to defend them.
The shift comes after hard-fought negotiations, in which, at American insistence, Germany and other countries dropped their opposition.
This is a big change. Since the three Baltic states joined NATO in 2004, defence planners have tried to sidestep the question of what their membership means in practice. If Russia is a friendly NATO partner, not an adversary, then defence plans for the new member states from the ex-communist part of Europe should not be necessary. Indeed, until late 2008 NATO’s threat assessment—the basis for its military planning—explicitly discounted any threat from Russia. That seemed to send a dangerous signal that north-eastern Europe was a security soft spot, open to mischief-making and meddling from outside.
AP Protected presidents
The main push came from Poland, a big American ally in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the first to gain contingency plans—initially only against a putative (and implausible) attack from Belarus, a country barely a quarter of its size. When the war in Georgia highlighted NATO’s wobbliness on Russia, Poland accelerated its push for a bilateral security relationship with America, including the stationing of Patriot anti-missile rockets on Polish soil in return for hosting a missile-defence base.
Meanwhile military officials in NATO began low-key but wide-ranging efforts, called “prudent planning”. Under the authority of the American supreme allied commander in Europe, these did not require the formal consent of NATO’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council, where they risked being blocked by countries such as Germany.
Speaking in Prague in April 2009, President Barack Obama publicly demanded that NATO develop plans for all of its members, which put the Baltic case squarely on the alliance’s agenda. But in the months that followed, inattention and disorganisation in his administration brought no visible follow-up. Instead, snubs and missteps, particularly on the missile defence plans, deepened gloom about how seriously America took the safety concerns of its allies in Europe’s ex-communist east. An open letter by security bigwigs from Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic states and other countries publicly bemoaned the decline in transatlantic relations.
A muted NATO response to extensive Russian military exercises on the Baltic and Polish borders last autumn sharpened the worries further. Many feared that NATO’s intense focus on Afghanistan was leading it to neglect its core mission, of territorial defence of its members. That risked undermining the alliance’s credibility.
Now that seems to have changed. Formal approval is still pending and the countries concerned have been urged to keep it under wraps. But sources close to the talks say the deal is done: the Baltic states will get their plans, probably approved by NATO’s military side rather than its political wing. They will be presented as an annex to existing plans regarding Poland, but with an added regional dimension. That leaves room for Sweden and Finland (not members of the alliance but increasingly close to it) to take a role in the planning too. A big bilateral American exercise already planned for the Baltic this summer is likely to widen to include other countries.
Assuming the plans prove specific and credible, politicians in the Baltic states should now have plenty of time to address their countries’ far more pressing economic, political and social problems.www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15268095
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