On the 24th and 25th of October, Castle on Water in Wojnowice hosted the third Dutch-Polish Roundtable, organized within General Maczek Dialogues. The event focused on further intensification of Dutch-Polish cooperation with a special focus on the future of European security, the EU enlargement and the Eastern Partnership in the age of impending tensions within the Transatlantic community.
The round table discussion was preceded by the debate on the topic “High time for a new opening: The future of the Eastern Partnership” organized within the Polish Eastern Policy conference. The debate raised issues concerning the contemporary problems of the Eastern Partnership project, leaving room for debate on the transformation of this idea and its adaptation to contemporary challenges such as shaping relations with Russia and Russian diaspora.
The second panel of the event was entitled “The darkest hour-– how to enhance the support of Kyiv’s best friends for the Ukrainian military effort and deter Russia on the Eastern flank”. The Dutch perspective on that matter included the observation that the paradox of the Ukrainian struggle to meet the EU membership requirements, especially the rule of law, made the EU members realize how fragile and unstable the rule is in the EU itself. What is more, the EU and NATO need to build deterrence strategy and act more asymmetrical towards powers such as Russia or China in order to face the international challenges and threads effectively.
Polish participants added that the positive outcome of the cyberattacks, airspace violations, GPS disturbance and other hostile actions that are taken against various European countries is forcing the EU to take a proactive approach. In their opinion, member states should be interested in the victory of Ukraine, not only in Ukraine not losing the fight. With the social mood changing into more hostile towards Ukrainians, the EU should act on keeping the image of Ukraine as a country worth saving.
The discussion continued on the following day, during the last panel, entitled “The stress test- The EU enlargement and the Eastern Partnership- how to maintain the momentum of the accession process and reform the EaP”. Panelists posed a proposition to transform the Eastern Partnership into a toolbox more adequate for modern challenges in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia. They also agreed, that regardless of the outcome of Russian-Ukrainian war, the EU should stay open for Ukrainian membership, as long as the country meets the requirements.
From the round of comments after the panels there were several conclusions. Firstly, some form of the reform of the EU is crucial before any enlargement could happen. Secondly, without keeping the rule of law in good condition, the EU members cannot think about further enlargement and further democratic backsliding in the member states may undermine severely the EU, what, by default, would put the enlargement under a huge question mark. Lastly, the Netherlands and Poland should seek for more platforms of cooperation on very concrete issues such as for instance, support for reforms in the candidate countries and fight against hybrid threats.
The Dutch-Polish General Maczek Dialogues were launched by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Poland and the College of Eastern Europe (KEW) and named after General Stanisław Maczek, a Polish tank commander of World War II, who liberated Breda 80 years ago where he is also buried. The firs round table of Dialogues took place in November 2024 in Castle on Water in Wojnowice (Poland). We met for the second time in the Hague in April 2025. The third editions of the Roundtable was organized in cooperation with Heinrich Böll Stiftung Warsaw.
