W XXV-lecie Traktatu polsko-niemieckiego. Kilka refleksji

The Polish-German Treaty of Good Neighbourship and Friendly Cooperation became a symbol of a new foreign policy of the independent Poland after the systemic changes of 1989. Its significance has a bilateral dimension in relations with the unified Germany and a general dimension as well. As concerns the former aspect, the Treaty together with the confirmation of the Polish-German border opened the way to building a Polish-German community of interests in all political areas and in interpersonal relations. As to its general import, the “big” Polish-German Treaty was the first major signal of a turn in the foreign policy of the independent Poland towards aspiration to membership in the then European Communities (later the European Union) and the North Atlantic Alliance. Thus, it paved the way to initiating Poland’s cooperation in all the basic areas of relations with the Western Europe of those times.