The Law and Justice Party wants the government to engage in cooperation with Central European countries. - The aim of this cooperation is to strengthen the cooperation of these countries in order to make better use of this location in European politics or to find recipes for problems related to unemployment as well - says Marek Kuchciński. In his opinion, the green light given by EU institutions to regional agreements is a good pretext for these countries to conclude an international agreement. According to Marek Kuchciński, this is the best instrument to make the Carpathian strategy a reality.

Thanks to this strategy, Central European countries, such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia or Romania, could jointly react to political moves of Brussels, act on energy security or communication investments. It is about spending EU money on concrete investments. - Our partners are only waiting for the Polish move in this matter. France is building an Alpine strategy and our government is not doing anything that Berlin does not allow it to do," explains Krzysztof Szczerski, MEP and former Deputy Foreign Minister. In his opinion, the political proximity of Germany and its unwillingness to take an independent initiative is the reason for its passivity in this matter.

- Maybe Donald Tusk's government does not want to build such a strategy, maybe it is simply not interested in it? - asks Piotr Naimski. Former Deputy Minister of Economy indicated yesterday that such an agreement would support communication and energy investments. - We want to encourage our partners to cooperate and create projects that we could implement through our governments. Such a strategy would support these activities. Thanks to them our region could assert its sovereignty in relation to the general EU policy coordinated from Brussels - stresses Naimski.

Szczerski reminds that the EU Council adopted a document highlighting the macro-regional strategy. - It coordinates state activities in the context of spending EU funds. One concerns the Baltic Sea, the other the Danube. Others concern the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea," Szczerski said. Today the European Parliament will hold a debate on this issue. - We are surprised that the Polish government, which has such instruments in its hands, is silent about the strategy for Central Europe. It lowers our position in the EU and in the whole region. Meanwhile, both local governments and scientists are calling for it. Such a strategy would serve the region and the interests of our state - emphasizes the MP.

The beginning of the emerging concept of the Carpathian strategy was the "Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians", known as the Carpathian Convention, announced in Kiev in 2003. It was signed by the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine. In September 2011, at the conference "Europe of the Carpathians" in Krynica, Poland also signed a special memorandum on the Carpathian Strategy. Another initiative was The Carpathian Project, in operation from 2005 to 2008. Its provisions related mainly to tourism, local trade, nature protection, Carpathian road and rail corridors as well as small energy projects. The Carpathian strategy would be a good complement to the Eastern Partnership programme, e.g. in the case of Moldova and Ukraine, and would provide an opportunity to bring the EU closer to Ukraine and Serbia through projects related to environmental protection, tourism and facilitating the movement of people.