Monthly Archives: July 2019

Members of the European Parliament on Tuesday ratified Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen as the new President of the European Commission — making her the first woman to fill the EU’s top job.

It is not the first time she has made history: in 2013, she became Germany’s first female defence minister, a position she has held ever since.

The Brussels-born 60-year-old has been a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for several years and it was once thought she would be Merkel’s successor.

Although she entered politics later in life, von der Leyen was no stranger to politics. Her father, Ernst Albrecht, was the minister-president of Lower Saxony and the former director-general of the European Commission, among other posts.

At the age of 13, von der Leyen moved from Brussels to Germany with her family. She went on to study economics at the London School of Economics and later medicine with a specialisation in gynaecology in Hanover.

The native French and German speaker has seven children — relatively rare in Germany, where the average birthrate is 1.59 children per woman.

Von der Leyen got into politics at the age of 43 and has been a member of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) party since.

She held various local political positions within the Hanover region between 2001 and 2004, then elected to Lower Saxony’s state parliament in 2003, before becoming a cabinet member as the minister for social affairs, women, family affairs and health.

Von der Leyen was catapulted into the German political landscape in 2005 when Merkel appointed her federal minister of family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth. Four years later, she was elected to the Bundestag, or German federal parliament. She was the federal minister of labour and social affairs until 2013.

Her tenure as defence minister saw her defence department was accused of awarding questionable private contracts linked to the hiring of two consulting firms, McKinsey and Accenture.

She later said several errors were made in allocating contracts and that she would endeavour to prevent it from happening again through a series of new measures.

In 2015, she was accused — and later cleared — of plagiarism on her PhD thesis.

(17. 7. 2019 via euronews.com)

Poland’s prime minister said on Thursday his country was proposing senior presidential aide Krzysztof Szczerski as a candidate for its next European commissioner.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki made the announcement at a press conference after talks in Warsaw with European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen.

He described Szczerski as “a person who is well-versed in the realities of the European Union” and who would make “a very good commissioner.”

Morawiecki also told reporters that his more than two-hour meeting with von der Leyen “lived up to expectations on a huge number of issues.”

“My entire conversation with Ursula von der Leyen was about the future, a positive future for the EU and for Poland as a key member of the European Union,” he said.

Morawiecki’s talks with von der Leyen focused on sources of income for the European Union, migration, trade and the staffing of European Commission positions, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz was quoted as saying earlier in the day that his country was interested in securing “a significant portfolio” in the next European Commission, one “important for the EU and reflecting the significance of Poland in the EU.”

The current Polish commissioner, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, is in charge of the EU single market, industry, entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Krzysztof Szczerski is chief of staff and a senior foreign policy adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Earlier this year, he made an unsuccessful bid for an international position as deputy head of NATO.

Germany’s von der Leyen was this month elected as the next president of the European Commission.

EU leaders in early July named the former German defence minister as their choice to helm the European Commission after opposition by countries including Poland to socialist-backed Dutch contender Frans Timmermans.

(25. 7. 2019 via thenews.pl)

Polish President Andrzej Duda has hailed the delivery of a first batch of US LNG under a long-term deal, saying it marked a ‘historic’ moment for bilateral economic relations.

“The first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) under a long-term deal with Cheniere from the United States is an important step on the way to ensuring Poland’s energy security,” Duda said in a letter that an aide read at a ceremony in the northwestern Polish port of Świnoujście on Friday.

Polish government officials and US diplomats attended the ceremony, which took place on Friday after a ship carrying American liquefied natural gas (LNG) from US supplier Cheniere Energy arrived in the Polish port on the Baltic Sea.

In his letter, Duda described the delivery as “a historic moment for Polish-American economic relations and a confirmation of close allied ties between our countries.”

Under the deal with Cheniere Energy, Poland expects to import 29.5 million tonnes, or nearly 40 billion cubic metres, of American LNG over 24 years, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency has reported.

“This is a perspective that allows us to think more calmly about supplying gas to Polish companies and Polish families,” Duda said of the deal, as quoted by state news agency PAP.

Poland’s PGNiG in October said it had finalised an unprecedented 20-year deal for the purchase of LNG from two subsidiaries of the US-based Venture Global LNG company amid efforts to make Poland independent of Russian supplies.

Piotr Naimski, the Polish government’s pointman on strategic energy infrastructure, said in February that Poland would stop buying Russian gas after its long-term supply contract with Russia’s Gazprom expires in 2022.

(26. 7. 2019 via thenews.pl)

Preliminary results in Ukraine’s parliamentary election suggest President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party is on course to win big as Ukrainians endorse his reform agenda.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) said the ruling party had secured 42.35% of the votes after almost a half had been counted on Monday.

This was followed far behind by the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform for Life, which secured 12.8%, and former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko’s party, European Solidarity, with 8.7%.

But the early distant lead for the Servant of the People party, which is led by Dmytro Razumkov, was somewhat overshadowed by reports of poor voter turnout.

The turnout was registered at 49.9%, which was the lowest ever in the history of Ukraine’s parliamentary elections, and was the first time it dipped below 50%.

Addressing supporters after an initial exit poll was announced on Sunday evening, Zelensky said he would be happy to cooperate with the Voice party, headed by rock star Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, for talks about forming a governing coalition in parliament.

A senior member of the Voice party, which is currently fifth with 6.43% of the votes, separately said it was open to an alliance with new political forces provided they were not backed by oligarchs.

But as vote counting continued, talks about creating a coalition dwindled as the Servant of the People looked set to win an overall majority, making it the first party to do so in modern Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters after the exit poll was published, Razumkov predicted his party had won all of the constituencies in Kiev.

The early results in the election prove Zelensky is likely to have confirmed his grip on power after his surprise victory against incumbent Poroshenko in the presidential run-off in April.

Zelensky, who shot to fame playing the president on Ukrainian television, won the second round run-off runoff with 73.2% of the vote despite having no political experience with an anti-corruption, anti-oligarch message.

(22. 7. 2019 via euronews.com)

The opposition Polish People’s Party (PSL) has said ahead of parliamentary elections this autumn that it aims to “build bridges of understanding” in a usually fractious political landscape.

The party’s leader, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, on Saturday officially launched his grouping’s Polish Coalition election project.

Speaking in the central town of Piątek, Kosiniak-Kamysz said he aimed to “build bridges of understanding and not put up walls of hate.”

Despite weeks of talks, key opposition groups have failed to close ranks in the run-up to the country’s parliamentary elections.

Grzegorz Schetyna, leader of the Civic Platform (PO), Poland’s largest opposition party, announced on Thursday that his group was going into the parliamentary race without the Polish People’s Party.

The two groupings jointly formed the Polish government for eight years until late 2015.

The Polish People’s Party has its powerbase in conservative rural areas, and has been unable to come to an agreement with the more socially liberal Civic Platform.

Poland is due to hold parliamentary elections in October or November.

The governing conservative Law and Justice party won a landslide in elections in late 2015 and will be bidding for a second term in power.

Law and Justice on Saturday discussed its election programme with voters in Chełm, a city in eastern Poland.

Law and Justice leader Jarosław Kaczyński said he wanted Poles to have a decent standard of living and feel equal.

(20. 7. 2019 via thenews.pl)

Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak has invited his new German counterpart to visit Warsaw.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel and tipped by some as a potential future German leader, took over as defence minister on Wednesday.

Kramp-Karrenbauer has replaced Ursula von der Leyen, who was on Tuesday elected as the next president of the European Commission.

Błaszczak held telephone talks with Kramp-Karrenbauer about military cooperation between their countries with an emphasis on strengthening security, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

Błaszczak was one of the first foreign officials to hold talks with the new German defence minister, according to the defence ministry in Warsaw. It added that the talks were held at Germany’s request.

(19. 7. 2019 via thenews.pl)

Leader of Law and Justice Jarosław Kaczyński has presented candidates topping the lists in 41 constituencies for the parliamentary election scheduled in Poland this autumn. Among the candidates are PM Mateusz Morawiecki – in Katowice, Deputy PM Jacek Sasin in Chełm, Culture Minister Piotr Gliński in Łódź, Speaker Marek Kuchciński in Krosno, and Jarosław Kaczyński will be running in Warsaw.

“We have change and continuation” said the Law and Justice leader, referring to the new names which have appeared after many of the party’s top politicians were elected MEPs.

“We have “ones” which we believe will be able to perform their duty properly, and that duty is particular involvement regarding the elections and particularly intensive representation of everything, that Law and Justice will present in the election,” he said.

Polish Press Agency PAP informs that according to their sources Law and Justice’s full platform for the autumn will be presented at the end of August, before the convention inaugurating the launch of the campaign.

(13. 7. 2019 via thenews.pl)