Free Republic

Georgette Mosbacher, President Donald Trump’s pick for the new US ambassador to Poland, has vowed to voice America's support for "essential freedoms" in the country, according to reports. During a hearing in the US Senate on Tuesday, Mosbacher said she was “aware of recent concerns about respect for democratic institutions in Poland” and added that she intended to voice America’s strong support for “essential freedoms” if confirmed as ambassador. Mosbacher said, as quoted on the foreign.senate.gov website: “I am aware of recent concerns about respect for democratic institutions in Poland — freedom of speech, the independence of the judiciary, and...

Warsaw’s controversial shake-up of its judiciary, which could force two-fifths of supreme court judges to step down, is causing increasing friction with Brussels. The country’s new prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, is braced for the EU to issue an extaordinary formal warning by triggering article 7.1, a procedure which could lead to member states having bloc voting rights suspended. He said: “As far as I understand, the decision has already been made that next Wednesday [December 20] the European Commission plans to start article 7.1…it will most likely be triggered.” This could pave the way for the suspension of voting rights...

Austria’s new chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said that the European Union’s migrant quotas have not worked and that he wants to change the “erroneous refugee policy”. Kurz has now joined forces with the leaders of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic; countries that have already refused to adopt the EU migrant quota scheme. According to Kurz it is “positive that Tusk (President of the European Council) and several European states are pressing first and foremost for decent border protection and spending more EU funds on this”. Earlier Tusk called the troubled scheme “ineffective” and “highly divisive” before an EU summit in...

Central Europe is sharply divided on the crisis in Ukraine, while the EU is anxious to maintain unity. Several of the countries reject the very notion of Russia as a security threat. Rob Cameron reports from Prague. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrives in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Monday for talks with Central European colleagues expected to be dominated by the crisis in Ukraine. Analysts say maintaining unity in the face of Russian aggression is one of the key challenges facing the European Union; but there are sharp divisions in Central Europe over how to face this challenge. Indeed...

The Czech Card of Russian-Polish Confrontation Simon Araloff, AIA European section President of Russia Vladimir Putin this week paid official visits to Hungary and Czech Republic – two of the four states forming the "Visegrad Group" (V4). During month and a half prior to that, the Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and the President Lech Kaczynski visited Prague. During the same period, the Head of the Polish Cabinet was also in the capitals of Hungary and Slovakia, and the President held talks in Kiev. The same as does Katchinsky's February trip to Washington, Warsaw's regional activity is aimed at guaranteeing...

The Visegrad Group - Polish Geopolitical Axis Simon Araloff, AIA European section Fifteen years ago the "Visegrad Group" (or V4) association was perceived by its founders to be a completely natural necessity for that period. It was a natural reaction to the political and economic vacuum formed in the central part of Europe after the collapse of the Council of Economic Mutual Assistance and the Warsaw Treaty Organization. Also it was a completely necessary tool for a dialogue with NATO and the EU. The Soviet giant collapsed on the east, Germany was uniting in the West. And Berlin with Moscow...

Visegrad Group countries agree to promote defense cooperation WARSAW, March 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Defense ministers of the Visegrad Group member states agreed here Friday to enhance defense cooperation. The defense ministers from Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republicand Hungary welcomed Poland's suggestion of establishing a training center in Poland for training airforce in the region, with the Czech minister pledging to provide training aircraft. The ministers also exchanged information on the peace-keeping mission of their respective countries in Iraq and other regions ofthe world. The Visegrad Group was formed in 1991 in Visegrad, Hungary, by Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, with the...