On the 5th of March the APPG on Poland held its Annual General Meeting, where the new board of officers was appointed. The group discussed issued related to defence spending in Poland and in the UK, the impressive contribution of the Polish community to the UK, as well as other plans of the group in the future. The Polish Ambassador His Excellency Piotr Wilczek, as a special guest, outlined the key topics and goals in British-Polish relations.
There has been a change of rules for APPGs, therefore a smaller number of officers were appointed (i.e. three officers). Daniel Kawczynski MP has been reelected to serve as the Chair of the Group and Lord Randall, Lord Anderson and Nia Griffith MP have been chosen as Vice-Chairs. Those who were Officers before, will remain Members, totalling our
The meeting was opened by Daniel Kawczynski MP, who has highlighted the fact that he is the only MP who was born in Poland and underlined the Group’s focus on fostering the Polish-British relations. He also stated that he is keen on organising another MP trip to Poland in the future. The key part of the meeting consisted of the speech of HE Piotr Wilczek, the Polish Ambassador to the United Kingdom. The Ambassador has highlighted the importance of the Polish-British cooperation, as both states work towards a stable and resilient international order, which can be built as both states share values and interests. He underlined the importance of the UK-Poland 2030 strategic agreement that was signed on the 6th of July of 2023. The Ambassador also emphasised that NATO is the guarantor of security and the EU is the foundation of peace and prosperity for Poland. The speech also mentioned Poland’s commitment to continuous support for Ukraine. The speech was followed by a chance for the attendees of the AGM to ask questions to HE Piotr Wilczek. The matters that were discussed revolved around Ukrainians in Poland and the situation regarding Polish farmers’ protests, but also the case of the Polish nationals living in the UK in regards to the pre-settled and settled status. There was discussion present on the fact that some Polish citizens settled in the UK do not possess the ability to physically prove their immigration status and an idea of physical ID cards was mentioned.
After the Q&A session, the attendees had a chance to hear from the representatives of a group of individuals working in the House of Commons who are learning Polish. All the attendees were pleased by the group’s impressive organisation and the large number of members willing to foster their Polish heritage or Polish interests by attending the language classes.
The meeting was closed by George Byczynski, who highlighted the success of the last Taste of Poland event, underlined the plans of a next MP trip to Poland and encouraged all the attendees to read and share the APPG’s monthly newsletter.
The meeting was attended by: Baroness Ludford, Lord Randall, Daniel Kawczynski MP, Lord Anderson, Lord Rogan, Martin Vickers MP, James Sunderland MP, Simon Baynes MP, Lord Hamilton and Nia Griffith MP and others. After two new members of Parliament joined, the total membership of the APPG stands now at 90, making it one of the largest country groups in Parliament.
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poland 