Ursula Stenzel, deputy to European Parliament and co-chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee of the Republic of Poland and the European Union, visited Poland on April 2-3.
Ursula Stenzel is Austrian deputy and member of the European Peasant Party political group in European Parliament. On January 29, 1997 she was elected chairperson of the delegation from the European Parliament to the Joint Committee.
On April 2, Stenzel watched the National Assembly pass the new Constitution of the Republic of Poland. She also met with members of the Presidium of the Joint Committee, co-chairman, Deputy Andrzej Grzyb, and vice chairman Piotr Nowina-Konopka. They discussed preparations for the 7th sitting of the Committee, to be held in Warsaw from April 14 to 16.
On April 3, Stenzel was received by Sejm Marshal Józef Zych, with whom she discussed problems of Poland's integration with the European Union and the situation that has emerged as a result of the adoption of the new Constitution by the National Assembly. The Marshal emphasised the importance of the Sejm's actions aimed at ensuring internal stability at a time of the implementation of economic and socio-political reforms. Zych and Stenzel also drew attention to the need of launching a broad information campaign that would accompany the adjustment moves and help overcome the fears of some social groups, both in Poland and inside the Union. During the meeting, Stenzel reaffirmed her intention of attending the Polish-Austrian Forum in Cracow in May.
During her visit to Poland, Stenzel met with the chairmen of the four biggest Sejm caucuses: SLD, PSL, UW and UP.
Stenzel also met with Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Borkowski.
During a meeting with the chairperson of the Polish-Austrian Parliamentary Group, Deputy Irena Lipowicz, Stenzel discussed the possibilities of intensification of bilateral contacts in the context of Austria's experience from the period of its domestic preparations for membership and the negotiations conducted with the European Union.
At the Robert Schumann Foundation, Ursula Stenzel talked to members of the Foreign Policy Council, Władysław Bartoszewski and Andrzej Ananicz.
Besides, Stenzel met with Committee co-chairman Andrzej Grzyb, head of the European Commission mission in Warsaw, Ambassador Rolf Timans, Secretary of the European Integration Committee, Minister Danuta Huebner, and EIC Director General Janusz Walecki, as well as with Austrian Charge d'Affaires in Poland, Georg Kilzer.
A delegation from the Swiss parliament, headed by Judith Stamm, chairperson of the National Council, and by Edouard Delalay, chairman of the Council of States visited Poland on April 7-10.
(Full account of the visit will be published in the next issue of the "Chronicle.")
On April 4, 1997, Sejm Deputy Marshal Aleksander Małachowski received Ivan Grach and Dmytr Tsipivnyk, representatives of the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council and the World Ukrainian Congress, who came to Warsaw to attend the Congress of Poland's Ukrainians.
Małachowski emphasised the existence of general understanding in Poland that the security of both nations is closely interrelated.
Questions related to the situation of the Ukrainian minority in Poland and the Ukrainian diaspora.
Both sides recognised as the most important matter the overcoming of stereotypes in thinking about Polish-Ukrainian relations and their historical background.
Wojciech Tomaszewski, the newly appointed Polish ambassador to Peru, paid a courtesy call to Sejm Deputy Marshal Aleksander Małachowski on March 27, 1997.
A meeting of the Standing Commission for Parliamentary Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region was held in Gdańsk on March 17. Poland was represented by Deputy Longin Pastusiak (SLD). The participants discussed the programme of and preparations for the 6th Parliamentary Conference on Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region "Mare Balticum - Mare Nostrum," which will be held in Gdańsk from September 15 to 16.