National Foundation to boost Poland's international image

Poland's state-controlled firms will pay $25 million a year to bankroll a new Polish National Foundation to upgrade the country's world-wide reputation, Treasury Minister Dawid Jackiewicz told reporters. One of the foundation's tasks will be to defend Poland's coal industry from European Union plans to curb carbon emissions. "Poland is gaining today a strong weapon in the fight for its good name," Jackiewicz told a news conference. The lack of such a foundation made Poland vulnerable to European Union interference, triggered by the extremist opposition's obsessive snitching and lobbying campaign designed to give the country a bad name. PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński said the government should recruit "very serious" firms outside Poland to defend Poland's reputation.

Sounds like communism to me.

Then I think this new foundation will fail miserably if this is one of it's tasks. Reducing carbon emissions is a worldwide goal, not something just confined to the EU.

Apart from the fact that Poland has the worst air pollution in Europe causing around 43, 000 premature deaths a year, Poland's mines are simply unprofitable. World coal prices are at a record low and Poland's mines are very deep, old and expensive to run.

Last year the three biggest Polish mining firms lost 10 billion PLN.
Even China which is the world's largest producer and consumer of coal is shifting away from fossil fuels into renewable energy, and China's mines are not as deep and coal is cheaper to produce there. That should tell you something. Any further investment will just be throwing good money after bad.

Have a read of this link:-

fortune.com/2016/04/17/poland-coal-energy-problems


How exactly then is the setting up of this new foundation going to make Poland less vulnerable to what you perceive as EU interference? Could you also provide a link about this new foundation so I can read exactly what it says please.

warsawvoice/WVpage/pages/article.php/36048/news

That link mentions nothing at all about the foundation defending the coal industry from EU plans to curb carbon emissions. Where did you get that information from?

OK, I have found this link where you obtained the information from, though I don't understand why you couldn't just link to it, rather than the other one:-

in.reuters.com/article/poland-eu-reputation-idINL8N19Z3WP

So do you have any thoughts on this new foundation defending Poland's coal industry?

Did anybody notice the typo in the Warsaw Voice article stating that the foundation will have an annual budget of over 100 PLN!!!

Yes I did Atch, but I checked elsewhere to confirm it is an eye watering 100 million PLN!!

In fairness Chemikiem he probably forgot where he read it. He does a fair old bit of net surfing on sites many and varied :)

But re the foundation, it's absolutely typical of how Poland keeps getting it wrong. It won't do anything at all to enhance their reputation, quite the opposite.

He may well have Atch, but he does have a habit of not providing any links to his info, and you would have thought he would have given one in his opening post to support his claims.


I'm sure that sort of money could be better spent elsewhere to be honest!


It's going to give the impression of a government being unwilling to change and stuck in the past, at least so far as defending the obviously failing coal industry.

It sounds like an expensive employment program for PiS hangers on to be completely honest....

I believe from the Polskie Radio website, but maybe not because when I went back I couldn't find it. Or maybe it got pulled for some reason.

Quite. They have nothing to say about it; carbon emissions are being reduced Europe-wide.

Here is a Reuters news story on the subject. Hopefully the mods don't delete it straight away so copy-paste it as soon as you can!

uk.reuters.com/article/poland-eu-reputation-idUKL8N19Z3WP

Poland's state-controlled firms will pay $25 million per year to finance a foundation aimed at bolstering its reputation abroad, Treasury Minister Dawid Jackiewicz said on Wednesday.

He said one of the foundation's tasks will be to defend Poland's coal industry from European Union plans to curb carbon emissions.

Since winning the first outright parliamentary majority since Poland's 1989 transition from communism, the Law and Justice (PiS) party has overhauled the rules governing the constitutional court, prompting the EU executive to launch an unprecedented inquiry in January into whether the party has weakened the rule of law -- a notion PiS mostly rejects.

"Poland is gaining today a strong weapon in the fight for its good name," Jackiewicz told a news conference with Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, announcing the Polish National Foundation.

He said it would have an annual budget of over 100 million zlotys ($25 million), roughly the same as the upper chamber of parliament, the Senate.

"We are a country with great ambitions, we want to conquer the world, conquer markets. We are prepared and now it's time to make the next step and launch the National Foundation," Szydlo said.

It does. An expensive vanity project that will ultimately do nothing except make people suspicious of its purpose.

Better to spend the money on sustainable energy.

Not people, but mean-spirited, vitriol-spewing losers. In today's times image is an all-important element of succees whether laucnhing a government project or advertisign a new brand of dog food. Poland has never been good at self-promotion, so it's high time to get started and make up for lost time. The Morawiecki Plan, the National Foundation, the Development, Education and Culture Ministries and others with opinion-moulding potential shoudl team up to create the Poland brand as well as individual Polish brands and marques. PiS' predecessors didn't as much as even broach the subject, becuase they were too busy serving their foreign-interest masters and lining their pockets with the kikcbacks.

A cynical vanity project designed to promote PiS particular outlook and which will be so transparently ridiculous that it will fool nobody.

Well it fooled polly.... unless he's just pretending to support it because... PiS! Night Shift! Magdalenka!

Thanks for that but if you had actually read your own thread you would have seen that I found where you had lifted it from in post number 6.


As you didn't read post #6, you would also have missed my asking if you had any thoughts on this?
It doesn't sound to me like this particular task will do anything to boost Poland's image abroad, given that the mines are running at huge losses. It sounds like this foundation is preparing to do battle with the EU more than anything else.


Apart from defending the coal industry, no other plans have been mentioned by the foundation. 100 million PLN is a substantial amount of money the foundation will be receiving, so what's it going to be spent on? Sounds like a lot of waffle to me with nothing concrete behind it.

This is not an entirely new thing either. I came across this report from 10 years ago stating that the then Polish government were going to set up a new PR office to improve Poland's image abroad.

irishtimes.com/news/pr-office-aims-to-improve-image-of-poland-abroad-1.1032454

I'm not a geologist or fossil-fuel expert, trader or user, so I can only give some general impressions.
Poland is blessed or cursed with its deposits of "black gold" as it is sometimes called. 95% of the country's electrical power is generated by coal-fired power plants. And doing away with collieries would throw thousands upon thousands of miners and auxiliary staff out of work. And yet we all know that coal burning pollutes the atmosphere. It looks like a lose-lose situation. There has been talk of turning coal into a low-polluting liquid fuel. If the EU supplied the funds for research, development and implementation, then maybe the collieries could be saved. At the same time, alternatives should be sought such as wind farms even watermills which can often provide enough energy to light up an entire village.

Yes, this is the downside unfortunately. Miners in the UK suffered this fate in the eighties and there are still unemployment black spots throughout the country as a direct result of this.


Which is why Poland and other EU countries have to reduce their carbon emissions.
What I don't understand is why this new foundation is planning to try to defend an industry which causes major pollution. They are just going to end up at loggerheads with EU commissioners. That doesn't bode well for boosting Poland's international image.


There is a link I supplied in post #3 which I don't think you've bothered to read, and explains quite well the problems with Polish mines.

They are simply uneconomic to run, the 3 biggest mining companies having lost over 10 billion PLN last year alone.
Why would the EU want to throw more money away on them? The biggest problem is that the mines in Poland are very deep and so it becomes more expensive to extract the coal. Even if coal could be turned into a low polluting liquid fuel, the coal still has to be extracted first.


They should definitely be, but it seems the new government is trying it's best to throw a hammer in the works regarding wind power :-

theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/03/proposed-polish-law-would-shackle-wind-power-say-industry

All in all, I think this new foundation will have their work cut out if they want to boost Poland's image abroad. There needs to be some definite plans as to what the 100 million will be spent on to start with, otherwise many people will be skeptical to say the least, that anything will actually come of it.

Sounds like you have no idea what communism is, let alone you know very little in general. You should console yourself with a thought you're not alone in your ignorance.

Poland has a very clear choice here. Either succumb to call for a closure of Polish coal mining industry or not. If Poland would listen to all those special interest groups, ideological biased left ignoramus or foreign pressure groups the country will suffer in a result. There will be a very bad and undesirable, injurious even consequences for Poland's economy.

Poland's energy sector and generally all branches of the economy are dependent on a coal in 90%. Also coal ore deposits in Poland are sufficing to provide a supply of that mineral for another 100 years.

Coal mines provide so much needed workplaces and other perks for the economy. There is no chance in hell that Poland would be able to supplement coal for other so called "green" energy sources.

In fact closure of coal mines would be counterproductive as Poland would have to import coal from abroad for the foreseeable future. More of the unemployed people would be weighing and slowing down economy. Who would pay for changing from coal to "politically correct" energy sources? Any takers?

Even those who are all "green" and are in favor of such polices should understand that such a policy if enforced in a defiance of the realties on the ground could cause a major collapse of the Polish economy. It would cause a backfire for "green" policies and a big step backwoods fro their ideas.

I think it is much better for all involved to take a step back, look at the realties on the ground and proceeds forward with a sprinkle of a common sane on board.

This news should please the new foundation.
A German energy trader is backing the opening of the first new mine in Poland in 40 years:-

dw.com/en/german-energy-trader-to-dig-deep-in-poland/a-19426793

Coal is obsolete trash and only uneducated idiots invest in it still. The polish coal industry is worthless and like so many things done by the urine government atm makes poland look backward and stupid. Ironside. ...your posts are nonsense a 16 yeqr old knows more science than you. Stick to worthless trivia and leave science.to people with an iq above 120.

Outdated 19th century intelligence quotient measured in the Stanford-Binet intelligence scales? Don't be absurd. :D

You obviously do not fall into Gf stratum. In the Cattell and Horn theory.


Indeed you sound like 16 year old.


I would say you failed to comprehend them.


Well if you don't get it, you don't.

Waffling more just makes you a bigger waffler. With regard to the coal industry you will have to disprove the worlds scientists from every country and University around to get me to back it. Just because runaway crackpots.or some guy you met at a bbq is also of some opinion which contradicts the best scientific minds on the planet doesn't mean anything. These backward views are just that and people who believe the earth is 6000 years old are in exactly the same category. But instead of providing me your scientific evidence you.waffle by picking my post apart. The.reason is simple, hot.gas is all you have to offer and lame copy and paste of words.is all you can do. Completely useless. Just like the setting up of this foundation. This foundation will prove to the world.that poland is backward and insult peoples intellect with their 19th century science. It would be better.if they shut up and go get an education instead. Your last post is typical of the old backward view based on nothing but the quite recent ability of ordinary people to have a voice because of scientific breakthrough and in this case internet and electronics. An irrelevant laughable foundation backed by the irrelevant and old fossils who think it's 1954. Useless.

Ah, you're one of those after my big wafer. Don't gonna happen, just forget about it man.


I ain't have to do a {....} all.


Kiss their asses, why don't you? Those guys are human too, someone has to write they paycheck, they gotta live. They are people for hire, that have their theories. Theoretic and practical are not the same more oft than not.

You *sh...ing me? what it all HAS TO DO WITH ANYTHING? You ...supial are as dumb as an ashtray.

All the rest of your pointless BS is just an example of a typical garbage that some teens spew, people they have read a book for the first time in their lives.

I got a deal for you. Once you prove that you have enough money (and you are willing) to pay for the transition of the Polish coal based economy into something else that'll be equally cost effective, more efficient and strategically secure - I'm going to vote for it

What says you?