Defence, energy security, fair competition, EU structural aid and Eastern Partnership – these will be top priorities for the Polish EU presidency in the second half of 2011, reports Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. The official programme of the presidency was approved September 22. Poland will seek to boost the European Defence Agency as a centralising organ to enable armies of member states to borrow costly military hardware. As far as energy security is concerned, Poland wants the EU to be ready to support members in case Russia decide to terminate gas supplies. To achieve this goal, so-called interconnectors linking the European gas network are to be constructed. Restrictions forbidding the protection of home industries by national governments are also included in Warsaw’s programme. Poland will also try to secure a substantial level of EU support for its development – currently it is the largest beneficiary of the EU aid. And the Polish government aims to further develop the Eastern Partnership programme and tighten relations between the EU and Ukraine. “We want to accomplish as much as France when it stood at the helm of the EU”, boasts Mikołaj Dowgielewicz, the Minister of European Affairs.
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This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.