Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called on the European Commission to investigate the pricing policies of Russian giant Gazprom amid rising energy prices.
After last month’s EU summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels would consider the feasibility of creating strategic gas reserves and if the bloc’s members could buy the resource together. She also pledged the EU’s executive would analyze existing gas and energy options, as well as the European Union’s CO2-emissions trading system (ETS) amid rising energy prices.
Source: Radio Poland, IAR
Rising gas prices were one of several topics on yesterday’s historic meeting of the Visegrad 4 (V4) countries and South Korea at a summit in Budapest.
The attendees also reportedly discussed climate issues, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and migration pressures.
Morawiecki told reporters following Thursday’s „V4+South Korea” summit that South Korea was an important partner for Central Europe’s Visegrad Group, which consists of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Polish officials highlighted South Korea’s role as Poland’s second-biggest trade partner in Asia and a potential collaborator in the areas of high tech and battery production.
The „V4+South Korea” summit was hosted by Hungary, which holds the year-long rotating presidency of the regional Visegrad Group until mid-2022. The previous such get-together took place in 2015 in Prague.
Source: Radio Poland
President Andrzej Duda announced new legislation yesterday that aims to reshape Poland’s judicial system by establishing an office of the justice of the peace.
Unveiling the proposal, Duda said he hoped that bringing justices of the peace to Polish courts would help „increase respect for the judicial system” among the public.
Under the bill, justices of the peace would hear minor misdemeanor cases, such as theft and acts of vandalism. The move is also expected to simplify and speed up judicial procedures.
As Presidential aide Paweł Mucha later explained, verdicts „in minor criminal and civil cases will be issued by esteemed, locally elected people,” building trust in the system. Additionally, district courts would have fewer cases to deal with, leading to greater efficiency.
According to the current legislation, justices of the peace would be chosen by election to serve six-year terms.
Source: Radio Poland, PAP
Coronavirus infection numbers and related death rates are climbing as cold weather forces many indoors and the regular cold and flu season kicks into full swing.
Poland on Thursday reported 15,515 new coronavirus infections and 250 additional deaths related to Covid-19, with the highest number of cases (3,206) in Warsaw and the province of Mazowieckie. In Pomerania, 746 new cases were reported yesterday, with one additional death related to the disease.
The Polish health ministry also reported an increase in the number of hospitalized patients, with 8,595 Covid-19 patients currently in hospitals nationwide, 713 of them on ventilators. In addition, 320,597 people are presently quarantined for possible coronavirus exposure, over 50,000 more than the number on Tuesday.
Health officials have warned that the number of COVID-19 infections in the country could rise in the weeks ahead as the Delta variant of the coronavirus begins to spread more quickly.
In a media interview published on Tuesday, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said that the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to reach its height in Poland in late November or early December, with up to 40,000 daily cases.
Source: Radio Poland, Radio Gdańsk
The Polish Ministry of Culture recently teamed up with a US-based foundation to retrieve two valuable drawings that disappeared from Warsaw’s National Museum during World War II.
On Wednesday, the drawings were handed over to ministry officials and delegates of the Warsaw National Museum at a ceremony in Poland’s Consulate-General in New York.
Drawn by the late-19th century artist Adolf Kozarski, the two small-town landscapes had been part of a more extensive set purchased by Warsaw’s National Museum in 1925. They disappeared in the chaos of WWII but were discovered in 2019 by the US-based Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art. The pieces were returned by family members of a now-deceased US soldier, who bought them as souvenirs of his military service in war-torn Europe.
Polish Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Gliński, accompanied by US diplomats, will officially hand the works over to the National Museum at a ceremony in Warsaw on November 8.
Source: Radio Poland, www.monumentsmenfoundation.org
Weather
Today will be rainy and overcast throughout the day with a light breeze coming in from the southeast. Temperatures will peak around a high of 10°C, or 50°F, dropping to an overnight low of 7°C or 45°F. Similar cool, wet weather is set to continue through the weekend, with a chance for some sunshine early next week.
Elizabeth Peck/MarWer
