Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 1

Speaker of the Senate of France Gérard Larcher: Distinguished Marshal of the Senate! Distinguished Marshal of the Sejm! Honourable Vice-Marshals of the Sejm and Deputy Marshals of the Senate! Dear Senators, Members of Parliament! Ladies and Gentlemen! It is an immense honour for me to speak on behalf of the Senate of the French Republic before you – the representatives of the Polish Nation. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Mr Stanisław Karczewski, the Marshal of the Senate, and to the Senate of the Republic of Poland for the invitation, for the magnificent welcome and for the perfect organisation of this visit, thanks to which I can meet the most prominent figures of the Polish political life. Also the Senators accompanying me during this visit: Chairman of the Committee for the European Affairs of the Senate Mr Jean Bizet, Chairman of the France-Poland Interparliamentary Friendship Group Mr Jean-Pierre Leleux, and Deputy Chairman of this Group, Ms Maryvonne Blondin, express their own thanks. I also welcome Mr Ambassador, who is the permanent representative of our country here in Warsaw. As you well know, my Dear Colleagues, France and Poland have had a long history of earnest friendship, forged in the brotherhood of arms. This year, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War as well as of regaining of independence by Poland after 123 years of partitions. Therefore, I would like to pay homage to the Polish Nation and its unbreakable struggle for independence, identity, and sovereignty. Since I am a Gaullist, I can say that to me these three words: “independence”, “identity”, and “sovereignty” have a very special meaning. I keep in mind the sacrifice of many thousands of Polish soldiers, made during the First and the Second World War, or those who fell in the heroic combat on the French soil and on all battlegrounds, from Narvik to Monte Cassino, each time standing on the side of freedom. This morning, together we have paid tribute to their memory before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a living memory – a memory of yesterday's sacrifice which gave us freedom of today and of the future. I know how much Poland suffered as a result of the conspiracy between two Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 2 murderous totalitarianisms of the 20th century, Nazism and Communism. Your country was divided into quarters, your elites were slaughtered, and your Nation was starved – and this was done by these two regimes. When in the spring of 1940 Stalin gave the order to murder Polish officers in the forest of Katyn, the Nazi did quite the same, assassinating people not so far away from here, in the Kampinos Forest, in the Warsaw suburbs. We are aware of how unimaginably cruel the German occupation was for your Nation. Poland’s suffering is not to be compared with anything else, any history of any other country – and from that stems a certain obligation towards Poland and the Poles. We should not forget, Dear Colleagues, that in September of 1944, after the call for uprising here, in Warsaw, the Red Army was waiting with their arms down on the other bank of the Vistula River, allowing the German forces to turn the whole city into debris, despite the heroism and courage of the soldiers of the Home Army and of all citizens of the Capital City. But at the same time those most fearless whom our continent, Europe, owes its freedom, originated from the Polish Nation. Since I cannot name all of them, while paying my homage, I will only say about the Polish engineers who were the first to break the code of the Enigma, used to convey strategic information. In that way, they made an unprecedented contribution to the war efforts and fight against Nazism. I would also like to pay tribute to Polish pilots who fought in the , and to numerous Poles fighting in the , members of the Polish-French intelligence organisation F2, and soldiers of the 1st Armoured Division who fell liberating my country and my home region of . It was the case in the Battle of Hill 262 and when Polish soldiers managed to close the . This morning, when I was laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I saw an inscription, “Chambois”. Chambois is a village close to my home, where as a child I used to go with my class to lay flowers. And I have to confess that I felt true and complete unity with the sacrifice of these Poles who had given their life for France and its freedom. I also retain in my memory the genocide against the Jewish community in Poland, one of the most numerous in Europe, that was committed in the Nazi Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 3 death camps. I further remember the heroic uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. I particularly wanted to pay homage to its heroes during my visit. The memory of the unprecedented genocide should be by all means preserved – it means conscience and remembrance oriented towards the challenges of the today's world. And it was one of you, Jan Karski, a man whose fate was extraordinary, who was the first to raise the alarm and inform the world public opinion about this crime. But unfortunately for the world, he had not been heard. Also, it is not a coincidence that Poles are the most numerous group of the Righteous Among the Nations – there are exactly 6,352 of them. Their names are written down in the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and their memory bears a message. I do not forget the exemplary fight of the Polish Nation with the communist dictatorship or the key role played by Pope John Paul II and the trade union “Solidarity” in bringing down the Iron Curtain. Thanks to the strength of convictions and fortitude of these people, communism was defeated. The Poles, confronted for the long five decades with the deadly ideology, had never ever resigned. They had never ever sought a poor compromise. And had never ever given up – they have always remain faithful to their commitment to freedom, independence, and sovereignty of their country. Today, our countries maintain intense relationships in the field of politics, economy, culture, language, and parliamentary cooperation. There are more than 1,300 French enterprises in Poland, which employ nearly 250 thousand Poles; 280 thousand Polish students learn French, and Poland is an Observer of the International Organisation of la Francophonie. Yesterday, I met with the representatives of local French enterprises and I realised – which is not common during my trips – that they think of Poland's future with optimism and hope. I believe that our cooperation in multiple fields such as nuclear research, artificial intelligence, language and culture, military affairs and arms, could be even strengthened. After regaining its independence in 1989, joining the NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, Poland once again returned to where it belongs – the heart of Europe. Let me invoke Czesław Miłosz here: the enlargement with Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 4 the so-called second Europe, with “a kidnapped West”, as Milan Kundera put it, was a historical necessity. This allowed a reunification of the continent and a return to the true Europe. Europe cannot be a Europe without Poland to the same extent as it cannot be a Europe without France or Germany. Poland can only be an important player and entity within Europe. This is what I wanted to say to you today from this place, among other things. Europe cannot be a sum of concentric circles. For me, there is only one Europe! There are no different categories of Member States. Undoubtedly, Mr Marshal, France and Poland are, along with Germany, strategic partners in the European Union. Despite the crises – and there has been a lot of them – the European Union has always managed to recover. Nowadays, as the UK has decided to leave the European Union, bringing Europe closer to its citizens, just as we have just discussed it, Mr Marshal, should be our priority. Europe must react and must regain its momentum. This new dynamics should, in my opinion, focus on specific initiatives. I believe that our citizens wish for a Europe that protects them. As for the geopolitical context, which has become increasingly uncertain and unpredictable, we must make further progress in foreign policy and defence to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy. Taking into account the uncertainty related to our American ally – that still remains our ally and friend, because we will never forget what we, and in particular I as a representative of my home land of Normandy, owe to the Americans – and taking into account the questions asked in relation to Russia’s rearmament, Europeans should take matters into their own hands to a larger extent and develop an increasingly common foreign policy based on European, autonomous and credible defence, which will supplement NATO. At the same time, France and Poland should play a leading role in that respect. In the face of terrorist threat and the problem of crime, it is necessary to develop police and judicial cooperation. How can we explain that it took 5 years for the EU to adopt the European PNR system, the famous passenger name record, when several European countries, France included, suffered as a result of fatal terrorist attacks? Such delays have serious consequences for the security of our countries and the public's opinion on the European Union. Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 5

In my opinion, the Warsaw-based Frontex agency, which we visited yesterday in the late afternoon, gives a view of the progress made so far to ensure the necessary control of our external borders. At the outset of the unprecedented migration crisis of 2015, the European Union took emergency measures in a dispersed manner and without any truly holistic coordination. However, the EU needs to make further progress. The credibility of the whole European project depends to a large extent on our ability to join forces to respond to the unparalleled migration flow we have been facing. I call on the European countries to take a more firm approach to controls and to show more solidarity. I do have some doubts about mandatory refugee quotas, but I think that we cannot allow the whole burden to be passed on only to those countries which, by a twist of fate, are a geographic gateway to Europe. It is also up to us to help them. Despite the launch of a new Partnership Framework with five African countries in June 2016, there is still a lot to be done in the area of relations with migrant source and transit countries. Undoubtedly, it is necessary to define clearer conditions attached to development aid and to ensure compliance with the commitments regarding the control of migratory flows. But let us not delude ourselves: only political solutions will enable the improved prevention and management of these flows. According to the OECD Secretary-General, there are currently 70 million migrants in Africa. You know about my country’s involvement in the Sahel, in military and humanitarian operations, but these are also preventive measures aimed at stopping migration flows. At the end of next week I am going to Chad and Niger to meet our armed forces and to visit our Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons – OFPRA. Nevertheless, we need help from all our European partners. A Europe that protects is also a Europe that can represent and protect its interests in terms of trade and do not hesitate to demand that its main partners- by this I mean China – respect the principle of reciprocity. The present-day silk road cannot consist in China transporting containers full of goods to Europe, and Europe transporting containers full of wood shavings to China. In this regard, we have to adopt the principle of reciprocity. Fiscal and social convergence is another priority. As an advocate of the Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 6

Gaullist view on social issues and as a former Minister of Labour, I am strongly attached both to the idea of sovereignty and social rights. It is not about harmonising welfare systems at European level, but rather about ensuring a certain minimum level of social rights in Europe. I know that both you and the Polish government have voiced reservations about the review of the Posted Workers Directive. I would like to take a clear stance on the issue: restricting the use of posted workers in conjunction with a protectionist approach is not a solution. I have myself objected, also within my own political party, to the idea of obliging construction workers to speak only French, known as the “Molière clause”. To my mind, it is important to preserve freedom, the freedom of movement for workers, but this requires a greater use of controls with a view to tackling abuse, as it is posted workers themselves who are the principal victims of abuse and fraud. In the face of the European Union’s dependence on energy imports, in particular from Russia – and this is not only a purely technical dependence, but also a political one – it is imperative to build one “Europe of energy” in order to ensure our independence in the best possible manner. This is the best way of securing the future for the coming generations, as is the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change – at the end of this year Poland will be hosting the COP24 conference, and this moment will be important to all of us. Maintaining an ambitious cohesion policy and an ambitious common agricultural policy is another priority in terms of our food security and sovereignty, while being the key to safeguarding balance in our territories. This is a highly strategic policy. Poland and France, which share many common interests, including agriculture and agri-food industry, should cooperate closely at the threshold of negotiations over the future financial framework of the European Union in order to oppose a potential drastic decrease in funds proposed for the common agricultural policy. We should support all initiatives aimed at enhancing European citizens’ awareness of our values and our common cultural heritage. Because Europe also entails a commitment to shared values, such as democracy and respect for the rule of law and fundamental freedoms. Poland has always been at the forefront of Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 7 supporting these values. Today friends talk about everything and anything, so let me mention some concerns about the judicial reforms, of which I hear in Poland and Europe. I do not want to intervene in the internal matters of your country. I believe that the Polish authorities are capable of finding a solution through intense dialogue between the majority and the opposition, between the Polish government and the European Commission. This is what Mr Morawiecki and I were talking about less than an hour ago. Let me also bring up the issue which has triggered a discussion, i.e. the recent amendments to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance and the issue of extermination camps. In this regard, I also do not want to teach you any lessons. As an old legislator, I rather want to share my thoughts with you, because in the past I had an opportunity to analyse several historical remembrance acts in the French Parliament. My private opinion is that the legislator’s work ends where the historian’s work begins, and I know that many other members of parliament share my view. While commemorating the 1942 mass roundup organised in Paris, aimed at Jews from France and other countries, French President Jacques Chirac stressed that a historian should retain full discretion to be able to give renewed witness. I can also look you straight in the eye and tell you that I think the same way as Sigmar Gabriel does and have no doubt as to who was responsible for the extermination camps, who ran them in order to murder millions of European Jews – I know that those were the Nazis. Dear Colleagues! Due to their history, geography, demographic and economic strength, France, Germany and Poland have a great share of responsibility within the EU – diplomatic and military responsibility. Our countries are designated to stimulate and make proposals, along with our European partners, of course. Now, when the UK has decided to leave the EU, I believe it is fundamental to maintain the unity of the 27 states and prevent new walls in Europe resulting from a lack of understanding as well as new divisions between the East and West, the North and South. Pope John Paul II said: “Europe must breathe with its both lungs - Eastern and Western”. Since 1990, we have had to watch over this balance. Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 8

Established in 1991, the Weimar Triangle is a unique basis for agreement between France, Germany and Poland. In October 2016, in Bern, the Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland, the then President of the Bundesrat Stanislaw Tillich and I adopted a joint declaration on the 25th anniversary of the Weimar Triangle. Given the numerous challenges that the EU has to face today, we are convinced that the spirit of Weimar will allow us to go forward together. We also strongly believe that our national parliaments, which represent nations, have a key role to play in bringing Europe closer to its citizens and making its actions more effective, more legitimate and better understood. I have already spoken about this in Bratislava in 2016. In particular, I mean the strengthening of our role – the role of national parliaments as the guardians of the principle of subsidiarity in order to ensure that the European Union's actions focus on the most crucial issues, in the case of which the EU can bring true added value. On 11 September 1977, General de Gaulle said in Warsaw: “We, Poles and Frenchmen, are very much alike – in terms of the economy, culture, science and politics. Over the course of centuries, our nations have never fought against each other. The success or misfortune of one nation has always been related to the success or misfortune of the other”. Thus, long live Poland, long live France, long live French and Polish friendship!