Trade dinner at the Sheraton in Poland
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Ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to the Sheraton.
It is an honour for me to receive you here today. With this dinner, I hope to return the hospitality extended to me here in Poland.
It is a pleasure for me to be in Poland.
· First because the enterprising spirit of Poland appeals to me. You are working very hard to make the 2012 European Football Championships a wonderful tournament.
· Second because I am eager to get to know your country better by seeing it with my own eyes.
Poland has a long history. It is a country that has produced famous names.
· Copernicus, who taught us that the sun is the centre of our system.
· Marie Curie, who was awarded the Nobel Prize. One for her research into x-rays and one for the discovery of polonium and radium.
· Chopin, a virtuoso pianist and composer.
Your history has also been turbulent.
But the Polish spirit has always remained intact.
The Polish heart has never stopped beating.
This century, and certainly with its accession to the European Union, Poland has been working on its future with renewed vigour. The Euro 2012 tournament that you are hosting with Ukraine is a fitting symbol of your dedication.
At first glance, Poland and the Netherlands do not seem to have much in common. But on closer examination you swiftly can see three areas that tie us to one another.
First: historic contact
The superficial view is that the Netherlands has always looked to the west, to the sea. Poland, to the north, east and south. But if you delve into history, you see just how intense the contact between the Netherlands and Poland has been in past centuries. And how far back in time this contact extends. Coins have been found in Poland that were struck one thousand years ago in the Netherlands.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, our relationship intensified. Our two countries were both great powers. Holland in trade, and Poland with an entire commonwealth under its flag. Through the Hanseatic League, but also outside this network, contact flourished. Modern Gdansk was then the grain warehouse of Europe and the old city closely resembles our Amsterdam. Timber was also a successful Polish export product. The wooden poles on which Amsterdam is built? A large proportion of them came from Poland. And they are still going strong…
World War II is a second link
In many places in the Netherlands, your countrymen fought for our freedom. This connects us to each other.
The Dutch town of Breda was liberated on 29 October 1944. But not by the Americans or Canadians as everyone expected. The liberators were Polish, the 1st Polish Armoured Division under General Stanislaw Maczek. When he died in 1994, he was buried at the Polish military cemetery in Breda at his own request. To this day, many of your countrymen still go there to pay the General their last respects. Poland assisted in the liberation of Arnhem too. A few weeks ago your Prime Minister Mr Tusk attended a memorial service commemorating the Battle of Arnhem.
And a third, more cheerful connection, is our common love of football…
We know Ebi Smolarek who plays in your national team very well. He has played in the Netherlands for a long time. And we remember his father, Wlodi Smolarek, as a talented player. He was captain of the Polish national team that came third at the World Championships in Spain (1982) and played professional football for no less than 22 years, in Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. And you know the Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker, although that adventure had a less happy ending…
And it is actually football that brings us here to Poland on this working visit. Euro 2012 is an opportunity for your country to raise its image as part of the European Union. To accommodate the events, you’re tackling infrastructure in a decisive manner. Expanding airports, modernising railways and roads and you are working on international connections.
There is a clear Dutch commitment to make a difference in these areas of expertise. On this visit, I am therefore accompanied by a high-quality business delegation. Tomorrow, during the seminar on ‘Infrastructure and Sustainable Construction’, four [PM of meer?] Dutch companies will already be signing a cooperation agreement with their Polish partners. Together we would like to demonstrate the type of knowledge and know-how we have in the Netherlands in the fields of infrastructure, connections and logistics. The Dutch government and the market are happy to work together and they do so constructively. We are therefore eager to discuss PPS.
Furthermore, I will be making a personal commitment to the future of a freight corridor between Rotterdam and Warsaw. Or between Warsaw and Rotterdam, depending on how you look at it. The potential of such a corridor is great in both directions.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I watched a video on the Euro 2012 website. I saw stadiums rising out of the ground at lightning speed. The National Stadium, the Baltic Arena. First, a bare field. An open space. A digger breaking the ground. That is the beginning. The first spadeful of earth shifted is nothing less than a step along the road to the future. It was a beautiful sight.
I wish you every success with your preparations for 2012 in the time ahead. For now, I would like to wish you a very enjoyable evening in which old ties will be renewed and new ties forged.