President Pierre Besnainou and Secretary General Serge Cwajgenbaum of the European Jewish Congress successively met in Warsaw over December 18th and 19th with the President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczynski, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Anna Fotyga and the President of the Polish Parliament Marek Jurek to discuss vital diplomatic issues affecting the European Union and the Middle East.
President Kaczynski assured the EJC of Poland’s determination against the Iranian regime’s revisionist statements and its recent sponsoring of an international conference on Holocaust denial, as well as the threat Iran’s nuclear ambitions pose to the free world.
President Kaczynski also informed the EJC that a restitution bill has been submitted to the Sejm, and President Besnainou stated that he hoped that any final law would find an agreeable consensus by providing equitable and just compensation or restitution.
For the first time, a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony was held at the presidential palace in Warsaw in presence of the President Lech Kaczynski. The ceremony was attended by the European Jewish Congress delegation and local Jewish community leaders.
President Besnainou stated “This heavily symbolic gesture confirms Poland’s warm relations with the Jewish people and with Israel”
