The week that has passed included quite a lot of politically interesting events.

Tuesday the debate in the Polish sejm about European Union – the summit on the EU multiannual budget as well as the financial pact and also the euro. I tried to follow the TV broadcast as much as I could. To follow and report about Polish views on the future…

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Friday late afternoon. A long week approaching its end. And a long period without a blog as well.

Hectic days have been mixed with days focused on curing my cold. There are a lot of viruses around these days, and it would be a relief to finally get rid of them. I really look forward to restarting my jogging as…

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Last week took me to Sweden. Not the whole week but the first part. At this time of the year the Ministry of Foreign Affairs normally organises a meeting for all Ambassadors in our region. Excellent opportunity to be updated not least about Swedish positions in EU-related decisionmaking: The financial crisis. Measures to strengthen the internal market. Free trade. Foreign…

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It was real winter in Poznań, as it is in Warsaw these days.

My wife Karin and I still managed to get an impression of the city and especially the remarkable beauty of Stary Rynek, the main square in the Old town. We were guided by Swedish speaking students from the Institution of Scandinavian languages, who spent parts of their Sunday afternoon to show…

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We did not need to dream of a white Christmas in Warsaw. We had one – our daughters, my wife, my brother and myself, celebrating Christmas in Poland for the second year in a row.

Now the white is gradually fading away. When I was out jogging yesterday morning in a calm and quiet Warsaw the sunshine almost made me think of the upcoming…

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In Sweden December 13th is equivalent to Santa Lucia. The candles, the songs, the buns, the ginger bread. We celebrated that yesterday also here in Warsaw at a huge reception. Fantastic experience, not least thanks to the Swedish studying students from two Universities in Warsaw.

At the same time December 13th for Poland is the day when the introduction of…

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Two days in Szczecin are now behind me. I would have loved to have had more time, because we did not really see so much of the city itself. On the other hand – what we saw was definitely attractive to say the least. My wife Karin said it reminded her about Göteborg (which is about the highest grade you can receive…

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One of my most inspiring experiences from more than five years as Ambassador is related to the fight against gender based violence.

I attended a meeting with a men’s group outside Hanoi – a project organised by the excellent local NGO, called Csaga, in cooperation with their Swedish counterpart “Men for gender  equality”. Twenty men sitting down on a bamboo…

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Twelve days since my last blog. Too much but I haven’t really got used to the practicalities of sharing some rapid reflections in the blog-format, only on Facebook, when the calendar is packed.

And it has been packed for sure. Why?

First of all because of  last week’s visit to Sweden. I got the opportunity to participate when the Speaker of the Sejm, Ms…

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Just back to Warsaw after visiting Wrocław for the commemoration yesterday evening of the Crystal Night 1938. Why were we there, my wife Karin and I? First of all because our Raoul Wallenberg exhibition were opened there in the White Stork Synagogue - a  cooperation with the Bente Kahan foundation agreed between us when I first visited the city in September.

The environment for the…

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