Centre for International Relations, supported by Robert Bosch’s foundation, organised first Polish-German Energy Forum in Berlin, Germany. In the “round table” discussion, which was chaired by Janusz Reiter and Friedbert Pflueger, participated Sigmar Gabriel and Janusz Piechociński.

Amongst the Polish government representatives were: Maciej Grabowski – the Minister of the Environment of Poland, Adam Jasser – the Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland, Olgierd Dziekoński – the Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the President of Poland, Katarzyna Kacperczyk – Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, and Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik - Deputy Minister of Economy of Poland. The business sector was represented by managers, leaders and CEOs of companies from the energy and mining sectors: Herbert Wirth from KGHM, Paweł Olechnowicz from Lotos, Peter Baudrexl from Siemens, Harald Schwager from BASF, Boris Schucht from 50Hertz, Tuomo Hatakka from Vattenfall and Sebastian Kulczyk from Kulczyk Investment.

Geographic proximity, membership in the European Union and similar development challenges create a great opportunity for Poland and Germany to cooperate in the energy sector. Furthermore, both countries simultaneously participate in the designing of new energy-climate policy for European Union. Its goals are significant, but more important are decisions regarding its methods and executions. Europe needs to become less ideological and more pragmatic. Vital move is to introduce mechanisms reducing the prices of energy sources, which only in the last few years increased by 30 per cent. In Poland, an average household spends 10 per cent of its income on energy. Those prices for industry were raised by 23 per cent. At the same time, the United States managed to lower energy prices by strongly re-industrialising, which makes American economy competitive, in front of growing Asian economies. 28 member states of the European Union have slightly different strategies, when it comes to energy and climate policy. Undoubtedly, that creates a problem. All the countries want to maximize their potential and have to cooperate with each other at the same time. Recommendations concerning issues of climate and energy are presented in the report, published by Centre for International Relations and Robert Bosch’s Foundation – ‘The energy for cooperation: analysis of a potential cooperation between Poland and Germany in the energy sector.’ Janusz Reiter and Friedbert Pflueger are the authors of the report.