Prime Minister Tusk and President Sarkozy displayed a friendly rapport at their November 2009 meeting in Paris G. Rogiński/CIR

Polish-French relations have come a long way since 2003 when then-President Jacques Chirac said Poland and its Central and Eastern European peers had “missed a great opportunity to shut up” on the issue of America’s invasion of Iraq.

Mr Chirac was irked by the fact that Poland and other EU-applicant countries had dared to publicly back US President George Bush in his plans to topple Saddam Hussein, ignoring French-German opposition to the invasion.

A different era

Today it’s hard to imagine a French president making similar remarks.
Poland is now a fully fledged member of the EU as well as one of the most dynamically growing markets in Europe. Its political influence is also on the ascent. This new status is reflected in the language used to address Poles by the current French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The fact that Mr Sarkozy himself is the son of a Hungarian immigrant arguably makes him more sensitive to the feelings of CEE countries which, after 50 years of communism and backwardness, are quick to take umbrage from slights (real or imagined) from their richer Western European counterparts.

“Europe needs Poland. France needs Poland. Poland is playing a leading role in Europe and this it must do because it has 38 million inhabitants. Long live Poland and long live the friendship between France and Poland!” Mr Sarkozy said in 2008 in a speech given before both houses of Poland’s Parliament, a privilege rarely accorded to a foreign leader.

During Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s visit to Paris last November, the two leaders talked about tightening relations between the two countries. They undertook to cooperate on energy issues (especially nuclear energy), the environment, agriculture and culture, as well as on security and defense issues.

Mr Tusk said Poland was counting on France to be an important partner in these matters. The French president, for his part, sounded extremely upbeat about cooperation between himself and Mr Tusk.

“We get along well, even very well. We have made a choice between ourselves, and the choice is partnership between Poland and France,” he said.

Mr Sarkozy added that he was full of admiration for Mr Tusk because of how he defended his country’s interests while at the same time playing an active role in important European decisions.

Other opportunities

Whether this mutual admiration translates into political alliances – ad-hoc or strategic – in European policy areas remains to be seen. The choice of EDF as a partner for Poland’s nuclear ambitions (see p.18) would undoubtedly draw the nations closer together.

And should Poland spurn EDF for another partner? Well, France would lament a different sort of missed opportunity altogether.