Going beyond the anti-refugee rhetoric: a new formula for Czech-Polish relations
Vít Dostál
/ Ed. 2. 1. 2019
Czech-Polish political relations are cordial, Poland is the Czech Republic’s second most important trading partner and mutual infrastructure is gradually improving. Though, as is also the case with the Visegrad Group, a negative attitude towards refugees dominates the countries' joint political narrative in the EU.
What might be than today’s positive formula for the Czech-Polish relations?
The policy paper first argues that anti-refugee symbolism that unites the Czech Republic and Poland in the EU does not lead to a strengthening of the two countries’ positions in European politics. On the contrary, it could lead either to isolation or a break-up of the Visegrad Group. As any U-turn of Czech or Polish European policy cannot be foreseen, a positive bilateral agenda is identified. It involves enhancing of already well-developing security and defense cooperation, settlement of the territorial debt, addressing of cross-border environmental issues and joint commemoration of the Seven-day War from 1919.
The paper was prepared within the project “The Czech Republic and Poland in the transforming EU”, which is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in the framework of the Czech-Polish Forum.
