In a statement published on the Polish ministry’s website, it was further said that Warsaw and Berlin’s support for beleaguered Kyiv should be both political and military. The postwar reconstruction of the country was also discussed, and opinions regarding the possibility of supporting Ukraine’s EU aspirations were exchanged.

The two ministers also agreed that expansion of European sanctions on Russia is an important instrument in applying pressure on the Kremlin, as is ensuring that the sanctions are effectively implemented.

Sikorski and Baerbock also agreed that cooperation within the Weimar Triangle format, a regional grouping bringing together Poland, Germany, and France, could be employed to push forward key issues for the future of the European Union, including European security.

Berlin also put forward proposals regarding dealing with the challenges posed by the difficult Polish-German relations throughout history, as well as the challenges faced by the Polish community in Germany.

Outstanding issues

One of the bones of contention in the relationship between the two countries has been the matter of reparations for the human and material losses suffered by Poland in the aftermath of the German invasion and occupation during World War II, which was conducted in collaboration with the Soviet Union and which, following the German defeat in 1945, left Poland a satellite in the orbit of the Kremlin for more than four decades.

The previous conservative government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party prepared a report summarizing the losses suffered by Poland throughout the course and in the aftermath of World War II and used it as a basis to demand reparations amounting to €1.45 trillion. Berlin repeatedly said that it considers the matter of reparations closed.

The new Polish government, a broad coalition spanning from center-right to left, and led by the center-right and liberal Civic Coalition political alliance, adopted a less confrontational approach in dealing with Berlin, reviving the Weimar Triangle format. The rapprochement with Germany is part of a wider strategy to mend Poland’s relationship with the European Union, which became strained under the previous government.

Nonetheless, during a visit to Berlin in late January this year, Sikorski stressed that Germans must understand how for the Poles, the painful history of World War II and the memory of its victims weighs heavily on the relationship with their western neighbors. He also said that some gestures to make amends, e.g. proper commemoration of the victims and monetary compensation for the surviving Polish victims of the war, would help to improve the relationship between Warsaw and Berlin.

Regarding the Polish community in Germany, an issue that is often raised is that while the German minority in Poland enjoys certain privileges as an officially recognized minority, such as access to education in the German language and waiving the 5% electoral threshold for parties representing German minority interests, similar rights have not been extended to Poles in Germany. This in spite of the 1991 treaty between Poland and Germany, which promised that minority rights would be extended to Poles in Germany and Germans in Poland on the principle of reciprocity.

Germany currently extends official recognition to a handful of minorities: Danes, Frisians, Sorbs, as well as Sinti and Roma people. Poles lost their status as a recognized minority on September 7, 1939, after the German invasion of Poland that precipitated the outbreak of World War II, and that decision made by the Nazi authorities of the time has not been rescinded.

The German side argues that Poles should not be entitled to the status of a recognized minority since, unlike Germans in Poland, the community is made up of recent immigrants to the country and their descendants.

The Polish side, however, argues that some Poles in Germany can trace their roots to Prussian subjects who migrated in search of work from Polish-inhabited lands in the eastern parts of the Kingdom of Prussia to the country’s western lands, predominantly the Ruhr industrial area.

Tighter cooperation in the future

A new post of minister for foreign affairs’ plenipotentiary for intercommunal and border area cooperation has been set up by each side. Professor Krzysztof Ruchniewicz and MP Dietmar Nietan, plenipotentiaries for the FMs, engaged in consultations for the first time.

According to the statement by the Polish MFA, Minister Sikorski said that in his opinion returning to regular meetings between the Polish and German cabinets, as well as setting up a new mechanism of meetings between the countries’ respective ministers of foreign affairs and defense, “symbolize a new opening in the relations and the intention of broad cooperation of Warsaw and Berlin.”

The last Polish-German intergovernmental consultations were held in 2018, between the cabinets of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Chancellor Angela Merkel.