Poland's EU Council presidency can serve as an agent of change

The Polish presidency has also worked to maximise its commitment to Ukraine militarily, economically and politically.

- ARVIND KUMAR

Since the assumption of the presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) by Poland in January this year, the focus given has been on achieving stability in the "security" domain.

When the EU was deliberating on achieving security in a comprehensive framework, Poland reflected its vision in providing a road-map for consolidating security in a number of areas including external, internal, information, economic, energy, food and health.

Both environmental and climate change also features as a part of priority and interlinkages have been built and hence "Security, Europe" became a major motto of Polish presidency.

The contemporary geopolitical environment obviously has thrown several challenges to the presidency of the council.

Hence, the attempt made by Poland in bringing all the major domains of security and seeking solutions for each one of them was not an easy one.

There is no denying the fact that Poland has shown its commitment to raise the debate and explore ways and mechanism in such a limited time of six months of presidency.

The Polish programme has been well thought out and will be a part of the 18-month programme of the Poland-Denmark-Cyprus trio where there will be a continuity in realising the goals and achieving the tangibles.

While articulating the external dimension of security, Poland has been pushing to intensify the defence preparedness of Europe.

The changing dynamics of geopolitics and varying threat perceptions have warranted the EU to focus on its readiness posture and hence it is anticipated that defence spending is going to be boosted.

Though EU lacks a common security and foreign policy and hence, it is going to be a new beginning in consolidating the notion of "common security" in the EU.