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Le Monde (5 January 2025)

As Donald Tusk's team takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union, the context of the war in Ukraine offers Warsaw an opportunity to demonstrate its strengths and maturity, 20 years after joining the EU.

In an irony of history, Poland took over the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) on Wednesday, January 1, in a context both tragic and propitious. The Russian war that is devastating Ukraine, on the doorstep of a country so often trampled and torn apart by rival powers, has become a key issue for Europe. Warsaw had already perceived the threat long before the member states of Western Europe, who remained deaf to its warnings. Today, Poland plays a crucial role in the logistics of aid to Ukraine, and is working hard to fortify its eastern border, Europe's bulwark against the danger from the east.

In the rotating presidency, Poland takes over from Hungary, whose performance hasn't dazzled Brussels, with whom it is currently at loggerheads. This, in turn, accentuates the good European side of the team now in power in Warsaw. The prime minister, Donald Tusk, combines the advantages of having been president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019, and of belonging to the most important political current both in the European Parliament and within the College of Commissioners: the Christian Democrats of the European People's Party (EPP), from which the Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, also hails.

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