This year, we are celebrating 20 years since Poland became part of the EU family. 1 May 2004 is a very special day in my political life. I was there myself when the then Foreign Ministers of Germany and Poland met on the bridge between Frankfurt an der Oder and Słubice at midnight. I will never forget the fireworks over the Oder river.

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With Poland’s accession to the European Union, our countries have grown ever closer together – not only economically and politically, but, first and foremost, also at an interpersonal level. 

 

Places such as Krzyżowa remind us that our friendship, our peaceful life together in Europe, cannot be taken for granted. Eighty years ago, during the terrible German war of annihilation, courageous men and women who stood up against the Nazi dictatorship in the Kreisau Circle (Kreisauer Kreis) resistance group met in Krzyżowa.

 

Today, the Krzyżowa music festival is bringing together young award-winning musicians from different countries at this location – for the tenth time. It is a project that shows us that reconciliation, friendship and cohesion in Europe are created not only in intergovernmental conferences and meeting rooms, but, above all, thanks to joint cultural projects, cross-border cooperation and exchanges between young people.

 

When I returned to the Oder bridge at the beginning of May together with my counterpart Radosław Sikorski to celebrate the anniversary of EU accession, it was very clear to both of us that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is targeted against what the Krzyżowa music festival stands for: against our European life together in peace and freedom. I am therefore particularly pleased that, since 2022, the festival has been helping musicians who have fled Ukraine to make music and pursue their profession in exile with the Musicians Help Musicians campaign.

 

Together with Radosław Sikorski, I am delighted to assume the patronage for the Krzyżowa music festival once again. At the end of the day, the festival shows that European solidarity overcomes borders – just like music.

 

  

Annalena Baerbock

Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs

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