Gazprom in Poland
08.11.2007
Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, has been trying to get into the Polish market for years and finally its now close to getting there, informs DZIENNIK.
Review by Olek Kropiwnicki
Gazprom is now negotiating with the British company BP and the deal will include 300 BP petrol stations in Poland. Gazprom will practically take them over. Both the Law and Justice conservative party, which has just lost the election, and Civic Platform, a more liberal party, which is creating the new government, agree: Gazprom is dangerous for Poland. Why? Well, Gazprom is not an ordinary company. It supports Russian foreign policy, quite unfriendly for former Soviet satellite states and now the new EU member states, reminds DZIENNIK.
The favorite baby of Gazprom, though, is the project of the Baltic gas-pipeline, which is to connect Russia with Germany, by-passing Poland. As GAZETA WYBORCZA writes, several countries, including – of course – Poland, are protesting against the project for various reasons, from foreign policy to environment. Poland, as well as Estonia and Sweden, has been trying at least to postpone the investment and you can get the impression that this issue is the main subject of each meeting between Polish-German diplomats. Russia has been counter-attacking, though, and many Western companies are apparently ready to co-operate with Gazprom. Dutch, Italian and German companies have signed, or promise to sign, agreements that will make them contributors to the Nord Stream, or the new Baltic pipeline. The Russians intend to send their gas via Nord Stream, straight to Germany, as early as 2010, informs GAZETA WYBORCZA. Poland is afraid that since that time its dependence on Russian gas will make it an easy victim of possible political blackmail by the Kremlin.
2 million Poles employed in the trade sector feel oppressed when they have to work on Sundays, says the Solidarity trade union, quoted by RZECZPOSPOLITA. According to the new law, during 12 days in each year, including main national and religious holidays, all shops must be closed. However, for Solidarity this is not enough. The goal is to forbid trading every Sunday, they say. They are planning to start with a poster campaign, promoting alternative ways of life. Spend your Sunday with your family instead of going shopping, the posters will say, in spite of the fact that in Poland, for many families, Sunday means going together to the shopping center and spending half a day in such ‘charming places’. Every third Pole doesn’t wish any limits on trade, informs RZECZPOSPOLITA
