Welt am Sonntag: Polish-German dispute over nuclear energy | Germany – current German policy. DW News in Polish | DW
“There are few issues that can unite the boundlessly quarreling political camps in Poland. Four German Länder – Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – separated from this during a heated campaign less than a year ahead of the fall 2023 presidential election; The answer is the indignation of all Polish political parties,” writes Philipp Fritz in the Sunday edition of “Die Welt” – “Welt am Sonntag” (“WamS”).
The author will explain that while Germany is definitely giving up nuclear energy, Poland is at the moment of starting the construction of a nuclear power plant. Philipp Fritz draws attention to the support of the Polish society for nuclear energy – 86 percent. He explains that in this way Poland wants to become independent of raw materials from Russia.
The East German Lands Offensive
Please examine the compliance of this project with environmental protection. The Ministry of Environmental Protection of Brandenburg is enlisting the Polish side to protect nuclear energy “in the interest of the inhabitants and the environment of ordinary people on the Baltic Sea”.
Philipp Fritz cited the critical voices of opposition politicians, e.g. others Władysława Kosiniak-Kamysz (PSL) and Paweł Kowala (PO) and point out that the image of Germany in Poland is currently “extremely bad” due to Germany’s institution of Russian raw materials and sluggishness in transferring weapons to Ukraine.
“Therefore, Poland is particularly annoyed by the fact that critical voices towards the direct use of nuclear energy from the eastern German states, including Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, traditional friendships towards Russia” – we read in “WamS”.
Poles don’t understand German comments
For some Poles, the German objection is all the more incomprehensible given that the site recognized as a reactor (Kopalino) is more than 250 km away from the Polish-German border. In the Czech Republic, Slovakia or France there are numerous nuclear power plants that are located at the same distance from the German border, or even closer.
How to move Philipp Fritz, Polish diplomats still praise the German government for not protesting against the construction of reactors in Poland and thus not opening a new field of disputes, which are already abundant in tense Polish-German relations.
“The protest against the Länder has shattered peace for peace. The government in Warsaw has employed every topic with which to fuel anti-German sentiments, writes a German journalist.
According to Philipp Fritz, the German federal states cannot stop Polish research as part of environmental compliance testing procedures. Then, the right to EU co-decision can be won, if the project is considered to be a cross-border project.