It has been 20 years since the current Speaker of the Sejm Marek Kuchciński presented the idea of establishing an international university, and 15 since its inception. - Poland's regaining of sovereignty and European integration have created a new space for Przemysl's development. In these conditions, as early as the mid-1990s, we made efforts to establish a public university, the Przemyśl Academy, gaining support and willingness to lecture from prominent Polish and foreign intellectuals, such as Bohdan Cywiński, Roger Scruton, Czesław Miłosz, Andrzej Wincenz, Piotr Wandycz, Jarosław Piekałkiewicz, Zdzisław Najder, Jerzy Giedroyć, Gustaw Henryk-Grudziński and Lech Kaczyński," said the Speaker during ceremonial celebrations marking the 15th anniversary of the Academy. The ceremony was held during the 15th anniversary of the State Eastern European University in Przemyśl.

In 2001 a vocational university was established in Przemyśl, but we were looking for ways to transform it into an Academy," said Professor Jan Draus, the long-time and first rector of the Przemyśl university.

- This university was to be a place of meeting, learning and working on the borderline of cultures in Central and Eastern Europe," Marek Kuchciński recalled.

The idea has remained and the university's program is in line with Poland's current foreign policy, which aims to strengthen our region's position in the European Union and to strengthen cooperation in the Visegrad Group, as well as to support Ukraine and Georgia in their Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

- It is not only about typical political issues, but also creating impulses for international cooperation, strengthening the economic potential of the entire Carpathian macro-region, implementation of infrastructure investments, shaping the whole Central and Eastern Europe - said Marek Kuchciński.

According to the Marshal, such programs as the Eastern Partnership, an initiative of the Polish-Swedish diplomacy launched a few years ago, or Carpathian Europe, including the planned new Carpathian strategy road Via Carpathia which is the core of the whole communication network between the north and south of Europe, with various branches. Another example is the idea, which emerged during the Przemyśl talks, to launch a trans-European expressway Kiev-Paris via Przemyśl. Or the plan to build waterways connecting the Odra River with the Danube and the Baltic Sea via the Vistula with the Black Sea.

Urban Ahlin, the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag), who accompanied the Speaker of the Sejm during the ceremony, emphasized that Przemyśl is a place where many roads cross - religious roads, traditions and denominations, a symbol of multiculturalism.

- Sweden and Poland are the initiators of the Eastern Partnership, which assumes the EU's cooperation with six Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, he said.

- If we treat our neighbors well, we cooperate with them, we come out of it well. Here we have the energy to work with a great neighbor like Ukraine," explained Ahlin.

In Lubomirski Park the Marshal met with journalists, to whom he outlined the objectives of Chairman Ahlin's visit: i.a. the visit to the Polish-Ukrainian Schengen border, familiarization with the problems and preliminary talks on facilitating the movement of people and goods across the border.

- Europe's south and east are forcing the search for a recipe to strengthen the security of people across the continent - noted the Speaker of the Sejm. We should think about ways to strengthen the Eastern Partnership, which in recent years has experienced crises and needs new inspiration.

Marek Kuchcinski also stressed the growing importance of parliamentary diplomacy. - Hence the idea, he argued, for the President of the Riksdag before the Polish-Swedish Forum to come to the Polish-Ukrainian border to see what the challenges are.

PWSW educates over a thousand students on 13 faculties. The main seat of the university is located in Lubomirski Park in the Bakończyce district of Przemyśl. The seat of the university authorities is located in the historic Lubomirski Palace.