What does Poland ask of Germany?

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

A remarkably honest speech from the Polish foreign minister:

Then came the crunch, headlined “What does Poland ask of Germany?”. First came six points Mr Sikorski wanted Germany to acknowledge.

1) it is the biggest beneficiary of the current arrangements and therefore under the biggest obligation to sustain them

2) it is not the “innocent victim of others’ profligacy…You, who should have known better, have also broken the Growth and Stability Pact…your banks…recklessly bought risky bonds”

3) the crisis has lowered Germany’s borrowing costs

4) if its neighbours’ economies implode, it will suffer

5) the danger of collapse is greater than the danger of inflation

6) “your size and your history” mean a “special responsibility to preserve peace and democracy on the continent”.

The biggest threat to Poland’s security and prosperity, Mr Sikorski said, was not terrorism or the Taliban (and certainly not German tanks). It was not even the Russian missiles that the Kremlin is threatening to deploy on Poland’s border. A far greater threat would be the collapse of the euro zone.

Mr Sikorski concluded:

I demand of Germany that, for your sake and for ours, you help [the euro zone] survive and prosper. You know full well that nobody else can do it. I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity.

Germany, he said, was Europe’s “indispensable nation”.

You may not fail to lead. Not dominate, but to lead in reform. Provided that you include us in decision-making, Poland will support you.
Mr Sikorski concluded by highlighting the danger of belated reform, which had doomed the old Polish-Lithuanian joint state, founded in 1385 and finally extinguished four centuries later. Like the EU, it raised the standards of its time, pioneering the rule of law, participatory politics and regional security. Political paralysis led to its demise. Reform (such as the abolition of a crippling unanimity rule and the introduction of a permanent government) came in 1791, but too late. Poland was wiped from the map four years later.

Mr Sikorski ended his speech with these words:

We are standing on the edge of a precipice. This is the scariest moment of my ministerial life but therefore also the most sublime. Future generations will judge us by what we do, or fail to do. Whether we lay the foundations for decades of greatness, or shirk our responsibility and acquiesce in decline.

The speech deserves the attention it has brought. Whether or not it makes Germany change (or accelerate) course remains to be seen. But the historic moment is clear: to see a Polish foreign minister addressing a Berlin audience as a political heavyweight, with serious ideas and serious demands, is a huge change from the days when Poland was seen as a difficult and needy recipient of Western largesse.

Post external references

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    http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/11/polands-appeal-germany
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