The strength of diplomacy is its many layers. After all, the international macro scale also has a very local dimension, like the contacts of two municipalities, and the Europe of the Carpathians is a project of many governments that can be seen through a window in a Bieszczady village.
Sometimes we think that diplomacy is some distant world of elite talks at the summits of power. Meanwhile, we must not forget that this diplomacy should be felt in our villages, towns, and communities. Only then does it make sense if it concerns real people, and only then should it be conducted in this way. Man is the subject in it, the effect of all these meetings should be the decisions that give a measurable, tangible effect for each of us. When we summarize the year 2019, it is diplomacy that seems to be a topic that, on the one hand, arouses great emotions, on the other hand, the discussion about it gets distracted from where it should lead and who, in the final analysis, should be its beneficiaries.
For years Marek Kuchciński has been an ardent advocate of developing parliamentary diplomacy. This has resulted in dozens of meetings with representatives of legislative bodies of other countries as Marshal of the Sejm or member of the Polish Parliament, or quite privately as an active citizen of Przemyśl, Podkarpacie, Poland, and Europe. For it is difficult to perceive diplomacy by giving total initiative to governments and bureaucracy. It is extremely important, but only one part of the activity.
- For full success, it is essential that democratically elected representatives in Parliament or in local authorities are also involved in concrete projects. Moreover, the cooperation and meetings of the Central and Eastern European parliaments complement or keep up with what has been going on in the "old" EU or in Mediterranean Europe for many years now. Parliamentary cooperation supports the policy of governments and presidents of these countries, looking for a recipe for important challenges: migration problems, security issues - explains Marek Kuchciński. - Diplomatic activity develops beyond the sphere of pure parliamentary cooperation. It is also expressed in the cooperation of the Carpathian states. Its development element is the cyclical Carpathian Europe Conference, held in many places in Poland,' Kuchciński adds.
What does it mean in practice for an ordinary citizen living in the almost completely depopulated Brzegi Górne or Lesko, which wants to build its economic identity based, among other things, on modern tourism as the "gateway to the Bieszczady" or the much larger Przemysl? A good example is the idea of Europe of the Carpathians. It is an international project with very strong local roots.
The first example from the shore: since 2016, thanks to the initiative of Marek Kuchciński, a train on the Przemyśl-Lviv-Kiev route has been running regularly. According to the data of PKP Intercity, the routes of the international train connecting Poland and Ukraine discussed at the Europa Karpatia conferences have already been travelled by more than a million passengers. The situation is similar with the Via Carpatia route. It is assumed that the expressway will run through the Carpathians. Currently, Via Carpatia is over 7700 km long and runs through regions inhabited by more than 110 million people. On Polish territory Via Carpathia has almost 700 km, and the key artery constituting the axis of the corridor is the S-19 expressway running along the eastern border of our country. The road in the north through the expressway S-16 connects to another key project connecting Lithuania with Poland, which is the road S-61, popularly known as Via Baltica. On the international scale it is supposed to start North-South relations in Europe through the Carpathians. On a national scale, we have a program whose implementation is included in the National Roads Construction Program for 2014-2023 (with an outlook to 2025). On a local scale, it is jobs for companies building the S19 route and the creation of infrastructure that will allow to get off the main road and stimulate tourism or local business. These are real jobs. This is an example of international diplomacy at the European level, which should be carried out within the framework of, for example, the Visegrad Group or the Tri-Council. Governmental and parliamentary diplomacy. However, it is local diplomacy that can give an additional impulse, which, on the basis of this infrastructure, will connect towns and villages in different Carpathian countries. It will allow for economic, tourist, scientific, educational and cultural exchange. A great project can come to life only when an ordinary person will be able to reach the already mentioned Brzegi Górne, to run his business in Lesko, to meet a guest from Padeborn or Eger (partner towns) in Przemyśl.
Of course, its feeling of security will be built by cooperation realized through the participation of Polish delegations in meetings of NATO, the Council of Europe, OSCE, the Visegrad Group and the Carpathian Europe. Thanks to government programs such as 500+ more tourists will be able to visit Podkarpackie, but this diplomacy conducted on many levels will allow us to bring the citizen of Krosno closer to the inhabitant of Vienna, for example through the developing Digital Tri-More project that will take advantage of the development of road and rail infrastructure within the Tri-More countries to develop a common telecommunications infrastructure.
However, all these initiatives do not happen by themselves, by force of inertia, some automated mechanisms. There are concrete people behind them. As Speaker of the Sejm, Marek Kuchciński held several hundred meetings with heads of state, heads of parliament, ministers, and ambassadors. However, in order to keep the talks at the highest level coherent and beneficial for Poland and its regions, this diplomacy needs to be carried out on a micro scale, in villages and towns. A conversation with the head of state may open the door to enable cross-border meetings of village heads, mayors, town mayors, and voivodes. The reality of diplomacy is that a letter is not enough. Often it is the marshal or the MP who has to bring these people together, give them support in the form of contacts, but also in the form of a prosaic office where they can sit down and work out solutions that are good for the people they represent. That's what then creates the macro scale.
- I have always perceived my role in politics as working with people on the ground, in their natural environment, with a peasant in a village, a forester on a mountain trail, or a head of state in his palace. You cannot conduct diplomacy only from the perspective of Warsaw, because it does not lie on a communal road in the Carpathians, where the real interests of citizens intersect. Warsaw gives an opportunity to open the door in Budapest, but people from Tarnowiec and Egerszalók have to pass through this door and sometimes it is necessary to open this door for them personally', explains Marek Kuchciński.
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