Lech Kaczyński and Our Times

English Pages, 21. 12. 2015

Many thanks for inviting me to participate in this important, long time overdue gathering. Thank you for organizing it.

The ten years’ anniversary of President Lech Kaczyński’s entry in the presidential office of the country he loved so much and represented so well is an excellent and much needed opportunity to commemorate his views, his political stances, his achievements, his life, and – regretfully – his sudden, tragic, and very premature death, which was and still is for many of us hard to understand and accept.

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Notes for Sochi “Valdai´s Debate about Threats: The Threat Is Us”

English Pages, 22. 10. 2015

Many thanks for your invitation. After participating in the Valdai Discussion Club in St. Petersburg in June earlier this year, this is my second opportunity to attend one of your gatherings. I have never been not only to Sochi, but – I have to confess to this audience – south of Moscow. I am glad to be here.

I always try to respect the title of the conference or the session. This time I have a problem. The title “Together against Threats: Overcoming Strife for the Sake of General Progress” seems to me rather problematic.

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Rhodos Speech: Future of International Development Institutions – Can Their Failures Be Even Bigger?

English Pages, 13. 10. 2015

Many thanks for the invitation, which gave me the first opportunity to visit this beautiful island. Last time, I was in Greece at the end of June, at a conference in Athens, discussing the untenable Greek debt crisis which had developed as a consequence of this country´s voluntary entry (and continuing membership) in the European monetary union. This arrangement became an unbearable constraint, if not a straitjacket for it. The exchange rate and other relevant economic parameters connected with the Eurozone membership have proved to be in discord with the fundamentals of the Greek economy.

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Swiss Embassy Remarks about the Long-lasting European Crisis

English Pages, 23. 9. 2015

Many thanks for the invitation. The topic you suggested is excellent both from the long-term perspective, and even more in this very moment. To speak about Europe is an almost existential topic for me as well as for many others who like me spent most of their lives in the tragic communist era, who had been – for decades – dreaming about freedom, democracy, free markets, and – last but not least – national sovereignty. Our expectations were, as we see them now, wrong.

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An Appeal of the European Citizens to their Governments and Parliaments

English Pages, 7. 9. 2015

We, the undersigned citizens do not wish to look on in passivity, seeing our state institutions and political representatives are wasting time at this crucial hour, failing to fulfil their duty, which is – first and foremost – the defense of the security and interests of their citizens. Massive immigration is a fundamental threat to the stability of Europe as well as individual EU countries.

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Europaeum´s Summer School in Prague: Is Europe Endangered by Euroscepticism and Populism or by Something Else?

English Pages, 31. 8. 2015

Many thanks for the invitation. To speak about Europe is an almost existential topic for me as well as for many others who like me spent most of their lives in the tragic communist era, who had been – for decades – dreaming about freedom, democracy, free markets, and – last but not least – national sovereignty. The expectations-reality gap becomes, however, too big. We, or at least some of us, are deeply frustrated by what we experience in Europe just now. I know, or I guess, that this is not the way how most of you look at it.

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A Short (and Very Selective) Outline of Recent Relevant World Events

English Pages, 22. 8. 2015

I have to start by mentioning that this day, the 21^st August, is a very sad and distressing day for my country. Forty-seven years ago, the Warsaw Pact armies – led by the Soviet Union – invaded Czechoslovakia with the objective to crush the very promising development there, called – somewhat imprecisely – Prague Spring. Due to it, we had to wait for the coming of freedom for another two decades, till November 1989.

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First Five Years since the Outbreak of the Greek Crisis

English Pages, 28. 6. 2015

In the five years that just passed, we have been the witnesses of the Greek debt crisis but it is evident that its symptoms were growing well before May 2010. This country has experienced financial crises and serious budgetary problems many times in the past.

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St. Petersburg´s Comments

English Pages, 19. 6. 2015

1. Thank you for the invitation both to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and, specifically to the Valdai Discussion Club Session. I have promised to come to Valdai several times in the past but I had not fulfilled that promise. I hope my presence here today will be considered at least a small substitute for it.

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Vaduz Speech: Lessons, a Former Communist Country Learned from Its EU Membership or Was It Vice Versa?

English Pages, 29. 5. 2015

Thank you for the invitation to visit again this beautiful place. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to attend the XI. Gottfried von Haberler conference and to address this distinguished audience, especially His Serene Highness Prince Alois.

I would like, first, to explain the title of my today´s speech as it was introduced in the program of the conference. 

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