On the 25th and 26th November the Wojnowice Castle hosted Dutch-Polish Roundtable organised within the program of „The Maczek Dialogue: Central – Eastern Europe”. The guest list contained diplomats, academics, journalists, experts, local government officials and third sector representatives from Poland, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
The work during the roundtable was divided into three panels. The first one focused on further enlargement of the European Union: how to enhance accession prospects for Ukraine and Moldova, how to overcome challenges regarding democracy backsliding in Georgia, how to shape European policy towards Western Balkan countries or how to act in case of escalation of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan? The debate showed the European Union needs a more defined strategy regarding the future enlargement and needs to be prepared to introduce some changes within its functioning to meet the needs of future members.
Later debate was concentrated on how the shift in the US administration will affect European security and what actions need to be taken to build an autonomic security system in Europe. The experts posed the question whether Europe would need to take more responsibility for the support of Ukraine, and lastly what the perception of Russian threat in different parts of Europe is and how it affects the development of EU and NATO security strategies. The question of the role of the People’s Republic of China in the current development of Russian and American politics remained as a good starting point for further discussion.
The Night Owls session was shaped around the problem of maintaining the Western community as the community of values after Donald Trump’s presidential victory in the US.
The next day of debates was opened by a brainstorm of the diplomats over the previous day’s observations. Then, the experts were divided into two groups to prepare a joint policy paper on the matters discussed earlier. The presentation of conclusions served as a final act of the roundtable.
The Dutch-Polish Roundtable was organized by the College of Eastern Europe, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Warsaw and the Dutch Clingendael Institute. The event served as a ground preparation for a conference which will be held in the Netherlands during the Polish presidency (late spring 2025). The event is held within the framework of the Maczek Dialogue, a new Dutch-Polish initiative named after General Stanisław Maczek, a Polish tank commander of World War II, who liberated Breda 80 years ago where he is also buried.
