Nilsson, Tombinsky, Krawczyk, me

From the Christmas carols my President, Staffan Nilsson, and I hot-footed it upstairs to the sixth floor of the Jacques Delors building where we attended the opening of our last cultural event in the context of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, a photographic exhibition entiled ‘Artists for Europe’.  We heard speeches from Ambassador Jan Tombinski, our Vice-President, Jacek Krawczyk, and the curator of the exhibition, Wladyslaw Serwatowski. The photographer himself, Czelaw Czaplinski, was also present. The exhibition is a collection of photographic portraits of internationally-known Polish artists, both living and dead, and is a rich reminder of Poland’s vibrant culture. Ambassador Tombinski, taking time out from the hectic lead-up to the European Council meeting later this week, spoke eloquently about a Europe with ‘more nations than states, more peoples than nations’ and reminded everybody that it was this generation’s duty to preserve and pass on Europe’s progress to our successors…