Ukraine and Poland should make the most of bilateral negotiations to resolve important issues and finally resolve sensitive historical questions. At the same time, we should not have any unreasonable expectations related to Poland’s EU presidency. These views were expressed by experts at the press conference “The state of Polish-Ukrainian relations at the beginning of Poland’s EU presidency and on the eve of Poland’s presidential elections”.
We would like to remind you that in May 2025, Poland will hold presidential elections, and the presidential campaign has been underway. Furthermore, on January 1, Poland took over the presidency of the EU Council.
The discussions began with a hot topic – the statements of Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki. The politician said that he would not support Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO until Ukraine settles the issues of the past, referring to the Volyn tragedy.
According to Edwin Bendyk, Chairman of the Board at Stefan Batory Foundation, Nawrocki is trying to make the Ukrainian card his election strategy. The expert explained that Nawrocki is playing to the right wing of Polish society, without which he has no chance of winning the presidential election.
“This topic will not dominate the presidential campaign anyway, because other issues are more important to Poles. Of course, it is a highly important topical issue, in particular, the exhumation of the bodies of the Volyn tragedy victims, but I don’t think it will be possible to build a presidential campaign on this and dominate it,” Edwin Bendyk emphasized.
“I would not like the issue of Mr. Nawrocki and that unfortunate quote to obscure other important elements of Zelensky’s visit to Poland. This visit had a European dimension,” said Bartłomiej E. Nowak, a representative of the Vistula Academy of Business and Finance. “Donald Tusk is now the person on whom Europe’s eyes are focused. The situation in Germany and France is quite weak from a political point of view.
President Zelensky came to Poland at such a tough moment and shows Europe, which is watching, that we are able to solve our bilateral problems. These are intense relations, tough relations, but we can rise above them and we are able to solve them, because there are much more important things. And I think this point has been recognized in other European countries”.
According to Edwin Bendyk, one of the factors that significantly affect the perception of Polish-Ukrainian relations is the presence of a large number of Ukrainians in Poland.
“This change causes various social reactions. We remember waves of enthusiasm and solidarity in the first year (2022 – author). But then coexistence led to such a crisis situation, one might say.”
Tadeusz Ivánski, a representative of the Center for Eastern Studies, noted that for Polish business, the departure of Ukrainians from Poland is a disaster.
“Some industries rely solely on Ukrainians, for example, the hotel and restaurant business, industry rely solely on Ukrainian workers.”
The participants also discussed the issue of blocking the Ukrainian-Polish border by Polish farmers and carriers.
Bogumila Berdychowska, a quarterly Więź, explained that at some point the Ukrainian government replaced the strategy of negotiations with Polish partners with the strategy of conversations with European officials.
“First there were Zelensky’s speeches at the UN forum, then complaints to the WTO. In my opinion, there was a lack of understanding that external factors can only be used in a situation where there are no other chances for bilateral negotiations. A lot of experts from Ukraine also said that a mutual bilateral understanding would be much more effective in solving the issues of agricultural transportation.
What happened was very unpleasant. The months-long blockade of the border resulted in heavy losses. We must draw conclusions from this and learn from our mistakes. The first basic task for Polish and Ukrainian politicians is to negotiate and find common ground. Without this, both the Ukrainian and Polish sides will lose,” Bogumila Berdychowska is convinced.
Daniel Szeligowski from the Polish Institute of International Affairs, discussing the high expectations of Ukrainians for Poland’s presidency of the EU Council, stressed that we should not have too high expectations related to this.
And Tadeusz Iwanski added that according to the Polish authorities, Poland will do everything in its power, while Ukraine must do what it can and do its “homework”, and thus give an answer to skeptics in Europe.
For more details, watch the video of the press conference.
