Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz visits Prague

On a tour of neighbouring Visegrad countries, Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz made a one-day working visit to Prague on Tuesday. At a time when Czech-Polish relations are extremely good, Prime Ministers Marcinkiewicz and Jiri Paroubek devoted much of their time to the question of alternate energy resources for central Europe.

Prime Ministers Jiri Paroubek and Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, photo: CTK

Following the recent crisis sparked by Russia, which left Ukraine and several other European countries with insufficient gas supplies, Poland is looking to diversify its energy sources and Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz hopes to secure deeper cooperation with the Czech Republic. The Czech electrical company, CEZ, is on the agenda as a company expected to enter the Polish market on a major scale. The Czech and Polish ministers responsible for energy are due to meet in February to discuss details of future cooperation.

Also accompanying Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz was the Polish Minister of Education, Michal Sewerynski, who signed an agreement with his Czech counterpart, Petra Buzkova, to make cooperation in education easier. Michaela Lagronova from the Czech Ministry of Education describes the particulars of this agreement:

"It is an agreement between the governments of the Czech Republic and Poland on the mutual recognition of periods of study equivalent to certificates of education and certificates of scientific degrees and titles issued in both countries."

In terms of educational exchanges, do you have an approximate idea of how many Czechs are studying in Poland?

"No, we don't have a precise record of that because there are various kinds of exchange programmes - academic staff, governmental scholarships, or people who study on their own."

In addition to meeting with Prime Minister Paroubek, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz met with the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus. He also prayed with the head of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, at the same spot in the Archbishop's Palace, where Pope John Paul II prayed on his last visit to Prague. The Polish prime minister's tour then continued in Hungary.