SPECIAL NATIONAL SECTION
6
PORTUGAL IN POLAND
Jolanta Wolska
Open Mind, Open Heart
José Duarte Sequeira e Serpa, Portugal’s ambassador to Poland, talks to Jolanta Wolska.
■ It’s nearly four years since you came to Poland. Has your opinion about this country changed over this time? I came to Poland with an open mind and with a lot of enthusiasm. I had Polish friends whom I had met in many places throughout the world. Poland has changed very quickly in the short time that I have been here— not always for the better, might I add. The main positive change is in the mind set of young people. That is a similar change to that in Portugal in the 1980s. In a way, the recent history of both our countries is similar. We had a dictatorship for 48 years, and Poland did too. Of course, there was a difference in that ours was a national dictatorship, while Poland’s was imported, and that makes a big difference. The economic prosperity of Poland is growing; we have many Polish tourists
in Portugal. I see that the Polish legislative system is coming closer to that of other European countries. On the minus side, bureaucracy is very heavy, though sometimes we also have similar problems in Portugal. The most negative point in fact is the Polish language, but it’s my own fault: I tried to learn it but it’s the most difficult language to learn. ■ What benefits does EU membership offer small and medium-sized countries? Perhaps I will answer that differently. We have learned by experience. We can have many benefits from the EU, but we also have to pay the price, and Portugal has always been ready to pay that price. We are now also paying the price during the economic and financial crisis, but at the same time we have the support of the other members. The crisis might be worse if we weren’t in the euro zone, but at the same time, being a June 2010