The difficult relationship of German and Poland

"Following the European summit in Brussels that saw the Polish leadership mount a charge against Germany, the 'relations haunted by the deep wounds of the Second World War' would seem to give a logical explanation for Polish obstinacy," writes Jurek Kuczkiewicz. Warsaw had demanded additional weight in EU decision making bodies to compensate for the 5 to 6 million Polish nationals who died between 1939 and 1945. "However, reminisces on the contentious Polish-German relationship were entirely absent from the debate in Poland. ... The anti-German sentiment has fully disappeared from the majority of the Polish national consciousness. It's not for lack of objective reasons: the German investment in Poland played a major role in the economic recovery of the country, the Germans make up a large portion of tourists, while many Polish NGOs are financed by German foundations."

» more information (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Germany, » Poland, » Europe
All available articles from » Jurek Kuczkiewicz

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, June 26, 2007