The 450 club of the Civil Solidarity Forum (CÖF) – Civil Solidarity Nonprofit Foundation (CÖKA) and the Polish weekly Gazeta Polska strengthened and expanded its strategic cooperation concluded in 2012; the agreement to this effect was signed on Wednesday at the Citizens' House in Budapest.

László Csizmadia , the chairman of the board of trustees of CÖF-CÖKA, emphasized at a press conference that the historical friendship of the Polish and Hungarian people cannot be broken by any event.

"Citizens of Central and Eastern Europe regard the preservation of their sovereignty as a treasure," he said, indicating that the cooperation of the Visegrad Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) is an inescapable link that provides security against the "dangerously intensifying advance" of political and economic globalization.

Speaking about the war in Ukraine, László Csizmadia emphasized that Russian aggression is unacceptable, disregard for the rights of nations and nationalities, and curtailment of civil liberties on both sides is to be condemned.

"War requires a reasonable, well-thought-out policy, sanctions and countermeasures," he said, adding that the Hungarian and Polish people are not pro-war, but supporters of peace and peacefulness.

He said: The governments of Hungary and Poland naturally protect the interests of their citizens and fulfill the task given to them by the voters.

László Csizmadia criticized the EU's bureaucracy in Brussels, as it measures with double standards; he rejected illegal withdrawals of money, and then he believed that he saw the future in the strong cooperation of the EU member states.

"The friendly fire that hits Hungary and Poland based on double standards is unacceptable," he said.

The chairman of the board of trustees of CÖF-CÖKA said: they see the time has come to supplement and strengthen the strategic agreement concluded ten years ago with the clubs of Gazeta Polska, the Hungarian-Polish civil friendship. Among other things, László Csizmadia justified this by saying that European citizens should pay attention to the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe and to the improvement of the EU's institutional system.

Tomasz Sakiewicz , the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Polska, spoke about the fact that the EU should be built on principles such as Polish-Hungarian friendship, which is based on agreement.

Turning to the war in Ukraine, he spoke about the fact that so far seven million Ukrainian citizens have crossed the Polish border, hundreds of thousands of refugees have also arrived in Hungary. At the same time, he warned that the war could spread to the territory of other states, and that Poland and Hungary would find themselves in the same vulnerable situation if the Russians occupied Ukraine.

Tomasz Sakiewicz said: he blames the EU institutions to a large extent for not preventing the war. Freedom must be protected from the imperialist desires of Moscow on the one hand, and Berlin and Brussels on the other, he stressed, and then declared that Europe must be invited to democracy.

After the press event, a civil academy was held on current European issues. According to CÖF-CÖKA, the event was attended by László Csizmadia, Tomasz Sakiewicz, as well as Konrad Kamil Wytrykowski, judge of the Polish Supreme Court, and Zoltán Lomnici Jr., CÖF-CÖKA spokesperson and constitutional lawyer.

Source: Híradó.hu