Polish, German Leaders Hope to Improve Strained Relations

On the sidelines of the recently-concluded EU-Asia summit in Helsinki, German chancellor Angela Merkel met with Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski after a series of irritations in the neighborly relationship threatened to erupt into a full-blown row last week.

The League of Polish Families, coalition partner in the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, was planning to curtail the rights of the German minority in Poland by stripping them of an electoral privilege, according to reports in the German media.

Rights for German minority in Poland

The issue was the focus of Sunday's half-hour talks. Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the meeting that she had "received assurances from the Polish government that there are no plans to change the principles governing German minority rights in Poland."

Germany and Poland signed a bilateral treaty in 1991, which stipulated that the 300,000 ethnic Germans living in Poland are exempt from a rule requiring parties to secure at least 5 percent of a vote to gain representation in the national parliament.

"It's true that we guaranteed minority rights in our discussion, even though the Polish minority doesn't have these rights elsewhere," said Kaczynski, who added that a lot had been achieved during the meeting with Merkel.

Prior to the Helsinki meeting, the Polish prime minister had said he was against the asymmetrical rights situation, since the Polish minority in Germany doesn't enjoy any special rights in the German parliament.

Relations shaky this summer

Merkel seemed confident after Sunday's meeting that minority rights would be upheld and said she thought both countries knew "how important positive relations are and will act accordingly."

The controversy over the German minority's rights in Poland is the latest in a string of recent issues that have strained relations between Germany and Poland -- a friendship already deeply scarred by the Nazi invasion and occupation of Poland during World War II.

In July, leftist Berlin newspaper Tageszeitung printed a satire in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the prime minister's twin brother, was depicted as a potato. The incident sparked a furious response by the Polish government.

For weeks, the Polish government has publicly criticized an exhibition in Berlin documenting the mass displacement of ethnic Germans from Eastern European countries, including Poland, after the war. He claimed the exhibition obscured the Nazi’s role in the tragedy and fostered revisionist tendencies.

The Polish government has also likened a project for a Russian-German gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea to the Hitler-Stalin pact signed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, which defined the two countries' spheres of hegemonial influence.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said reently that Germany's ties with Poland have become unsteady and the neighbours need to work on promoting mutual understanding.

"There are a few irritations in the neighbourly relationship
between Germany and Poland," Steinmeier told German rbb local radio. Steinmeier said he had discussed the need to create "a bridge of understanding" with Polish counterpart Anna Fotyga.

Kaczynski to visit Berlin

Merkel too underlined the importance of mainting good ties with Warsaw.

"It was clear that we need good neighborly relations and there are problems that we don't want to sweep under the rug," the chancellor said after her meeting with Kaczynski.

She and the prime minister will have another opportunity to discuss each delicate point more thoroughly when Kaczynski comes to Berlin on Oct. 30 for his first official visit since taking office.