Author: All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poland
Taste of Poland Day
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poland invites all Members of the House of Commons and Lords as well as all Passholders to the first ever Taste of Poland event. The event will take place on 2nd May between 1pm and 4pm in the Jubile Room.
Discussions with Polish Minister Anna Maria Anders
On the 23rd of March 2017 the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poland met Polish Minister Anna Maria Anders, the Plenipotentiary of the Prime Minister for International Dialogue. The London-born Senator Anders is Poland’s representative to the Women in Parliaments Global Forum. She is also the daughter of General Wladyslaw Anders, a Polish World War II hero.
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AGM March 2017
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poland met on 20th March 2017 and held its Annual General Meeting. All the main officers were re-elected – Daniel Kawczynski MP (Conservative) as Chairman, Paula Sherriff (Labour) as Deputy Chairman and Gavin Robinson (DUP) as Secretary. We are thankful to all those MPs who cast their vote. The group currently has 54 Members and aims to increase the number in the upcoming year.
The group declared that their main plans for the upcoming months are the organisation of the Polish Day in the Parliament, the Trip to Poland in May, a monthly newsletter being sent out to MPs with key information about recent events in Poland and of the Polish community in the UK. The group is also planning to record video interviews in order to promote the British-Polish cooperation.
May 2017 Trip to Poland [Postponed]
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poland is organising a trip to Warsaw in May. The trip will take two and a half days. It will include meetings with politicians, diplomats, representatives of key British-Polish institutions and think-tanks. It will be an opportunity to meet war veterans who fought arms to arms with the British during the Second World War, as well as various famous people from the cultural and art scene of Warsaw.
APPGP meets Polish delegation
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poland hosted a meeting with the members of the group’s counterpart in Poland – The All-Party Friendship Group with the United Kingdom. The Polish delegation was led by Beata Mazurek MP, spokesperson of the Law and Justice Party, and Sussex-educated Konrad Glebocki MP. The group was invited by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and had an opportunity to discuss Britain’s post-Brexit relationship with Europe, the situation of Polish nationals living in the UK, the problems facing the European Union and Poland’s current state of affairs.
Future of British-Polish relations
In 2016 the Migration Observatory at Oxford University reported that Poles constituted the largest foreign-born population within the United Kingdom, with over 800 000 Polish-born residents living in our country, interacting on a daily basis with local culture, politics and society. In light of this, there has never been a more interesting or more important time to understand, and work in conjunction with a nation, whose people have so frequently, and so successfully chosen to embrace British values and make our country their home. History teaches us that embracing opportunities for Anglo-Polish cooperation can lead to the kind of inspiration which fuelled debates on the 19th-century Great Reform Act, and the kind of courage, which led to victory in the Second World War. However, while embracing the past, we must also look to the future.
