The first day of the Three Seas Local Government Congress, organised for the third time by the Marshal’s Office of the Lubelskie Voivodeship in Lublin, is behind us. At the opening ceremony, we hosted the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, the honorary patron of the event, and the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Elżbieta Witek. The Congress is attended by representatives of ministries, institutions, diplomatic missions, businesses, and regions from 12 member states of the Three Seas Initiative.
The Congress is a platform that aims to create solutions for the development of regions located between the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas. These activities are the response of the local government units to the current activities, implemented in the social-economic area at the state level. Discussions also concern bridging the infrastructural differences between Central and Eastern Europe and Western countries. The participants gathered at the Centre for the Meeting of Cultures were welcomed by Jaroslaw Stawiarski, Marshal of the Lubelskie Voivodeship.
– I am convinced that through the Three Seas Initiative, we will accelerate the processes of digitalisation, development of infrastructure, and transport routes in Central Europe. The presence at the event of so many eminent representatives of different areas of economic, political, and local government activity, representatives of the world of science, experts, and analysts – guarantees successful meetings and interesting debates. In times marked by the war in Ukraine, this initiative is very apt and extremely important. I am pleased that, as a poorer part of Europe, we can catch up with the countries of the old European Union, so that together with us it forms one strong organism,” announced Marshal of the Lubelskie Voivodeship Jarosław Stawiarski.
The ceremonial opening speech of the Congress was given by the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, who for the third time took the honorary patronage of the Three Seas Local Government Congress.
– This event has become a very important platform for sharing experiences in our part of Europe. This is the third congress held in very difficult times – this time we are only 100 kilometers from the Polish border with Ukraine, which fell victim to brutal Russian aggression. Today, security issues are the main topic of discussion in most of our meetings. The Three Seas Initiative is to be an accelerator, which will speed up the development and cause at least most countries to overtake a significant part of Western European economies in the near future. We are capable to achieve this because we are much more resilient to crises”, President Andrzej Duda added.
Then, the Marshal of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek gave the speech.
– I am very pleased that a parliamentary component has been added to today’s meeting. We value a common identity, but above all, we have a great sense of the potential that lies in our countries and our nations, a potential that we cannot waste. We must do everything to ensure that the Three Seas Initiative builds our wonderful future. I wish this meeting to be very fruitful and rich in both the exchange of views and the emergence of valuable ideas – said Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland Elżbieta Witek.
Member of the European Parliament Beata Mazurek read out a letter from the Prime Minister, President of the Law and Justice Party Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Panel I: The future of the 3Seas Initiative – opportunities and challenges in the new regional context Content partner: Chancellery of the President of Poland
The strengthening of relations between Ukraine and the 3Si Initiative creates a serious platform for accelerating Ukraine’s European integration process. The war showed how strong and necessary close contacts are, which in emergency situations turn into tangible, direct assistance. Security issues and macro-regional cooperation will form the basis of interaction between the countries and regions of the 3Seas Initiative, with the aim of shifting the European focus on economic and political issues precisely to this area. The discussion was moderated by prof. dr hab. Marcin Szewczak – Chairman of the Programme Committee of the Three Seas Local Government Congress. The panel featured: Marcin Przydacz – Secretary of State, Head of the Office of International Policy of the KPRP, Paweł Jabłoński – Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Government Plenipotentiary for the Three Seas Initiative, as well as Estonian Ambassador – Miko Haljas and Ambassador-at-Large of Lithuania- Gediminas Varvuolis. The first panel was followed by a speech by Health Minister Adam Niedzielski.
– When discussing security issues, we often forget that it has many dimensions, including health. The last three years have shown the great importance of health security and whether we are pharmaceutically secure and have certain guarantees in terms of drug safety. We are thinking about how to proceed in the future in terms of the production of medicinal substances,” said Minister Adam Niedzielski.
Panel II: Safety in the Region Content partner: Ministry of National Defence
The speakers touched on issues related to the enlargement of NATO by new members, i.e. Finland and Sweden, security, and the planned NATO summit in Vilnius. The discussion was moderated by Marcin Sienicki – Deputy Director of the Department of Infrastructure at the Ministry of Defense. The panel included Lieutenant General Wieslaw Kukuła – Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, and Eduardas Borisovas – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania in Poland.
After the second panel, the participants were also joined by Andrzej Bittel – Secretary of State, Government Plenipotentiary for Counteracting Traffic Exclusion.
– We are taking steps to expand the southern road and rail connections, the deficit of which is so acutely felt in our region. The negotiation at the European Union of projects for inclusion in the transportation network of the Baltic-Black-Aegean Seas corridor is a real result of the measures taken. This corridor will overlap with the key Via Carpatia project, Minister Andrzej Bittel announced.
After the second panel, prof. dr Przemysław Czarnek – Minister of Education and Science addressed a word to the participants.
– Today, Lublin is becoming the European capital of science, as the Three Seas Universities Network is being established here. If the Three Seas Initiative was created to develop our countries on every level, that is not possible without a scientific foundation. If we wish for genuine development of the Three Seas Initiative countries and effective and rapid catching-up of losses that largely result from Russian and Soviet imperialism, we must rely on scientific achievements – said Minister Przemysław Czarnek.
Signing the agreement on establishing the Network of the Three Seas Universities
The agreement on the establishment of the Network of the Three Seas Universities was signed by the Minister of Education and Science, prof. Przemysław Czarnek, Rector of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Rev. Prof. Mirosław Kalinowski and rectors from 12 universities from Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.
International Session
As part of the international session, 4 panels were held:
Panel I: Via Carpatia – the transport corridor of the Three Seas Initiative. The content partner of the panel was the Institute of Schumann’s Thought. The discussion was moderated by prof. dr hab. Zbigniew Krysiak. The discussion panel was attended by: Michał Mulawa – Deputy Marshal of the Lubelskie Voivodeship, János Ádám Karácsony – Vice-Chairman of the Pest Megye County Council, Member of the KOR (Hungary), presidents of LHS, PKP CARGO, CARGOTOR – Zbigniew Tracichleb, Dariusz Seliga, Marek Słomka, as well as Dr. Robert Perkowski – Vice-President of ORLEN and Tomasz Gontarz – Vice President of the Management Board of PKP Intercity SA.
Panel II: Energy security and the transformation of the energy sector in geopolitical aspect. The Foundation Lower Silesian Institute of Energy Studies was the content partner of the panel. The discussion was moderated by Remigiusz Nowakowski, President of the Management Board of the Foundation Lower Silesian Institute of Energy Studies. The panel discussed issues including the role of local raw materials in ensuring Poland’s energy security, investment in RES as a way to continue the energy transition, and providing clean and safe energy for industry. Panelists included Jarosław Kwasek – President of the Management Board of PGE Dystrybucja, Katarzyna Suchcicka – CEO of OX2, and Dariusz Dumkiewicz – Deputy President of the Management Board of Lubelski Węgiel Bogdanka S.A.
Panel III: Ukraine on the road to reconstruction and European integration. Three Seas Initiative Foundation, Regional Center for International Debate Warsaw was the content partner of the panel. The discussion was moderated by Ryszard Madziar – Advisor to the Vice-President of the Council of Ministers, Jacek Sasin. The panel was attended by, among others: Oleh Kuts – Consul General of Ukraine in Lublin, Mirosław Bendzera – President of the Management Board of the Grenevia Famur Group and prof. dr hab. Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse – University of Warsaw, as well as Wojciech Żukowski – President of the Euroregion “Roztocze” and Krzysztof Senger – Director at Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, Member of the Management Board of the Three Seas Fund (3SIIF).
Panel IV: 3SI states towards aggression of Russia against Ukraine. Institute of Central Europe in Lublin was the content partner of the panel. The discussion was moderated by Marlena Gołębiowska – senior analyst in the Baltic Team of the Institute of Central Europe, a researcher at the Catholic University of Lublin. The panel included dr Gediminas Kazėnas from the Institute of Political Sciences of the Michal Römer University in Vilnius (Lithuania), Jan Rafael Lupoměský – former advisor to the Czech President Václav Klaus (Czech Republic), Goran Andrijanić – publicist and journalist, an expert on international affairs (Croatia) and dr Łukasz Lewkowicz – senior analyst of the Visegrad Team at the Institute of Central Europe.
Accompanying events
In the second part of the day, parallel events were held:
Science session: Network of the Three Seas universities towards current challenges of science and the region, organised by the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. The purpose of the established Network is to strengthen cooperation between scientific centers. Participants were able to take part in 7 panels on topics including: university cooperation, the search for common instruments for research cooperation, security, digital transformation, and cyber-security, as well as the historical conditions of cooperation of the 3Si area.
Economic Forum, which comprehensively supports the offer of small and medium-sized enterprises from the lubelskie region and creates the appropriate environment for their development and internationalization. The Forum included thematic seminars on the role of women in the business world, in addition, there were discussions on the potential and development of economic cooperation in the 3Si area and digitalization. Panelists included heads of enterprises from at home and abroad, honorary consuls, representatives of the trade departments of embassies, and business environment organisations. An important element of the Economic Forum is the promotional stands of companies and direct B2B talks
Eastern Congress of Young Leaders organized by the European Meeting Centre – Nowy Staw Foundation. The purpose of the event is to prepare young people to participate in discussions on the future of Poland, Europe, and the world. During the event, the youth had the opportunity to witness the establishment of cooperation between organisations from different European countries.