The Polish Presidency An Indian Perspective

By Dr. D.K. Giri

On 1 January this year, Poland took over the rotating presidency of the Council of European Union in a grand ceremony at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw. This was the second time Poland assumed this position in 20 years since it joined the European Union and 13 year after the first presidency Warsaw had embraced. However, the present stint has raised a good deal of expectations in the current geo-political tensions, especially the Russian aggression of Ukraine that runs into its third year.
As the six-month presidency ends on the 30th June, it is a good time to assess the Polish performance from an Indian perspective. Like India, Warsaw faces an autocratic neighbour on its borders, which was once one of the two super powers, is in military occupation of an independent country, Ukraine, which shares long borders with it. Warsaw had fought wars against Russia that had invaded and occupied it. India’s relations with autocratic China could not be dissimilar to that of Poland-Russia relations.
But, unlike India, Poland has been smart enough to join NATO for its security and the European Union for its growth and development. Of late, Poland has been the fastest-growing economy in Europe and is increasingly seen as the mouth-piece of Europe in view of the relative decline of Germany and France, the two big brothers of the European Union.
Anthony Costa, the former Prime Minister of Portugal and the current President of the European Council, endorsed Poland’s growing importance in his speech at the inaugural function of the Polish presidency of the Council, “Poland is one of the greatest successes in the history of the Community enlargement and the best geo-strategic investment made by Europe, which made it possible to guarantee freedom and democracy that replaced long-standing totalitarian regimes”.
For common understanding, European Union has an elaborate and complex structure with multiple institutions conducting its affairs. The three major institutions are: European Commission, European Parliament and European Union Council. All three have presidents and the fourth president is the rotating one, that is of the Council of the European Union, which is the reference point in this article.
For the current presidency of the Council, Poland profoundly articulated the motto as ‘Security Europe’. These two words define the zeitgeist of contemporary times. With two bloody wars – Ukraine, Gaza (now Iran) raging across the world, each country is concerned about the security of its borders and its people. Polish presidency, however, expanded the concept of security by constructing seven pillars it could stand on. They are: defence capability and readiness, protecting peoples and borders, resilience against foreign interference and disinformation, economic guarantee, energy transition, productive agriculture, and sound health.
Poland maintained the continuity of thought and diligent work that has gone into making Europe safe and secure. The security concept is supposedly an extension of the work done by the former Finnish Prime Minister PettetiOrpo, called ‘Safer Together’. There were 80 suggestions made in that report which inspired the seven pillars of ‘Security Europe’, that was the running theme of Polish presidency. Several Councils on mutiplr sectors are working on different aspects of Europe. Polish presidency, at the time of writing, had organised 300 meetings in 29 cities of Poland.
As expected, Polish presidency put the biggest emphasis on the security of Ukraine which will define the cohesion of Europe which Russia seeks to destablise. Poland held that Russia was trying to redraw the geo-political and security scenarios of Europe. So stopping Russia in its tracks was the foremost priority of the European Union. Warsaw urged the member countries to increase their budget on defence upto at least 2 per cent of their GDP. It leads from the front by spending 4.7 per cent of its GDP on defence. Having been a victim of Russian autocracy and imperialism in the past, and now experiencing Russian bombs dropped 15 kms away from its borders, Poland is in the right strategic position to warn others on the threats to freedom and sovereignty. Poland advocates Ukraine’s eventual entry into EU and defending Ukraine, in the meantime, by all means, against Russian aggression. Poland also urges EU-member countries to withdraw from importing Russian gas and oil immediately by 2/3rd and eventually complete independence from Russian energy supply.
Poland argued that, Russian act of invasion of Ukraine attacks the fundamental values the European Union espouses and it was created to defend – freedom, democracy and human rights. Ukraine is a litmus test for continued existence of European Union as a democratic and plural entity.
Poland took over the presidency of the Council at about the same time as Donald Trump walked into the White House for the second time. Quite unexpectedly, Trump, in his second term, has shaken the political and economic order of the world. He seeks to divide and rule, strongly nudges Europe to pay for their own security and adopts protectionism and isolationism by imposing tariffs, all these for MAGA – Making America Great Again. Donald tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, grasped Trump’s mercurial and self-centred approach and urged Europe to stand solid and united to negotiate with their traditional ally. Tusk wanted Trump to realize that, as Brussels needs Washington for security, America needs European Union for its market.
Polish presidency initiated quite a few changes in EU policies – migration, reform of Common Agriculture Policy, enlargement policy, negotiating with Turkiye, a candidate for membership, engagement of civil society, facing the hybrid threats, mainly countering disinformation of which Russia is considered to be the epitome.
However, the most noteworthy impact of the Polish presidency is forefronting the security imperative in context of invasion of Ukraine. Poland successfully reiterated the European commitment to the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine.
The lesson India can draw is to ensure its own security and concentrate its energies on growth of its economy and development of its people by being a part of a security network as Poland has done. Neutrality is a strategic fantasy and not maintainable. Poland realized that. And as Poland and India raise their ties to a strategic level, New Delhi should realize that too and deepen its contact with Poland.
The second takeaway from the Polish presidency is the engagement of three Civil Societies which include think tanks, development organisations, human rights defenders and so on. The think tanks enrich government policies, and others become a kind of conscience keeper, enhance people to people contact and so on. The shrinking civil society space and non-involvement think tanks does not augur well for India. New Delhi needs to realise that foreign policy making needs multiple intellectual inputs. It could nolonger be an exclusive and elitist domain of a few.
I have, in reams of my writing maintained that the European Union and the Union of India have a lot in common. They should be closer than they have been. Poland could a play a pivotal role in deepening the ties in the interest of expanding the free world.—INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
New Delhi
26 June 2025

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