Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk takes over reins as President of Europe
View(s):The choice of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as the new President of the European Council, the EU’s most important institution, marks a new era in the grouping, Polish officials said.
Saturday, 30 August, they said should be remembered as the day when the division of the European Union into ‘new’ and ‘old’ member states ceased to exist and resulted in the end of a traditional and overused division. “There are no longer ‘new’ or ‘old’ countries. All of them count the same,” according to the Polish Institute in New Delhi.
It said the new chief of the European Council is prime minister of a country that has weathered the global crisis the best in the entire EU. Poland was the only community country not to slip into recession in 2008-11. The country has been generally held up as a model of economic success.
Poland also led a coalition of European countries demanding that a strong cohesion policy be preserved within the EU budget. As a result, she negotiated a record PLN 500 billion, which is several times the size of the Marshall Plan. Ten years was enough for Poland to become one of the key EU countries. Today, the date of joining the Community plays no role whatsoever, the institute said.
“Tusk has proved his credentials as someone who can conduct effective negotiations and reach good compromises. He is neither an extreme federalist, nor a eurosceptic. He is excellent at relating to the public (something he demonstrated by winning an election at a time when other European prime ministers suffered defeats). As a former opposition activist and a Kashubian by origin he can listen to minorities and respect positive particularisms, which are legion in Europe,” it said.
The institute said Donald Tusk believes in the European Union; he believes it is the only possible answer to the challenges facing Europe. But Tusk also believes in the Union of 28 member states, rather than the delusion of a federation without national identities. The fact that the 57-year-old prime minister of Poland has the energy to run the work of the European Council and represent the European Union around the world was not without its significance either.