Mikołaj Dowgielewicz, Secretary of State for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Wednesday summed up the first three months of Poland’s EU Council Presidency. ‘Following the Eastern Partnership Summit and just ahead of the European Council we can say we’re at the halfway point,’ he remarked.
Dowgielewicz presented the achievements of the Polish Presidency to date. ‘Of key significance was the adoption of the “six-pack” which will become binding next year and will realistically create a new situation in the European Union. Member States will be obliged to have a more serious approach to debt criteria. Decisions pertaining to economic policy will be taken in a more transparent manner,’ he explained.
He also alluded the Eastern Partnership Summit which was ‘the Presidency’s most important political event’. ‘The substance of its political declaration is a better offer for partner countries than what they could obtain from the European Union earlier,’ he said pointing to the commitment to abolish visa restrictions and the finalisation of negotiations on deep and comprehensive free trade agreement with Ukraine.
Among the other achievements of the Presidency mentioned were the negotiations on the multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020, the compromise achieved on the European Protection Order and the Krakow Declaration adopted at yesterday’s Single Market Forum.
‘We have been achieving the basic goals we have set for ourselves — rebuilding confidence amongst institutions (…) and building collective leadership in the EU,’ Mikołaj Dowgielewicz emphasised.
As regards the most important plans for the coming months of the Presidency, the Secretary of State for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed to the forthcoming European Council, the energy ministers’ agreements on external energy policy, continued hammering out of a mandate for the climate conference in Durban, the conference on a multiannual financial framework taking place in Brussels on 20th-21stOctober and the growth agenda.
Detailed description of the most important achievements of Poland’s EU Council Presidency in September
Konrad Niklewicz, Spokesperson for the Polish Presidency in the Council of the European Union
