Pro-European and open for the ideas of the European Movement International (EMI), these are the main impressions of the visit of the EMI delegation in Poland on 9 and 10 December 2010.
Representing the EMI, Pat Cox (President), Diogo Pinto (Secretary General) and Bernd Hüttemann (EMI Board Member) had the pleasure to meet with several representatives from the Polish Government, Parliament (Sejm/Senate) and Civil Society.
Speaking to the delegation, Mikołaj Dowgielewicz, State Secretary for European Affairs, underlined the high consent of the Poles for the European model and spoke in favor of the initiative to further strengthen the European Movement in Poland.
Małgorzata Dzieduszycka-Ziemilsk, President of EM Poland, noted that with the support of a number of other Polish pro-European civil society actors, the European Movement plans to rebuild the organisation throughout the next year. The EMI annual Federal Assembly, to be held in Warsaw during the second half of 2011, will be a good opportunity to step up their efforts and to give visibility to the Movement, coinciding with the upcoming Polish Presidency of the European Council. Representatives from about 30 Civil Society Organisations showed great interest in building a common pro-European network in Poland.
The EMI delegation concluded its successful stay in Poland meeting Andrzej Halicki (Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee/Sejm), Marek Ziółkowski (Vice-President of the Senate of the Republic of Poland), Róża Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein (Member of the European Parliament) and Tadeusz Iwiński (Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland).