 who is the president of the Federation Congress of Urban Movements. Marta will speak in Polish. In many cities in Poland, organizations are emerging, which we call urban movements. Some of them formed a federation, the Congress of Urban Movements. And greens are very present in the Congress and support it as they share the same vision of the city. Beata Nowak, the editor-in-chief of the green magazine Gielonewia Domoczci, is one of founding members of the Congress. Lech Mergler, one of pillars, and the first president of the Federation, is a former green activist. Our green foundation, Strefa Geleni, is, of course, a member organization. And Miukas Tempieni, who will be the next speaker, who is an important person in the Green Party. She is the same time leader of local urban organization Aksia Konin, which is a member organization of the Congress. So to understand why the Congress of Urban Movements is so important for the green family in Poland, I would like to ask Marta Bainarowicz, its president, to present the organization and the main challenges faced by the Polish cities today. Marta, I give you the floor. Marta, bardzo proszę. Hello, hello, everyone. My name is Marta Bainarowicz. I have a presentation. However, I'm not sure if you can see it. So can I show you the next slide? Can I just click it on my screen? How can we tackle this from a technical point of view? Hello? Can you hear me? Yes, you can click yourself, and you'll be moving to the next slide. I cannot see the presentation, but let's try doing this this way. So let me explain how the Congress started. We started in 2011. Oh, now I can see my presentation. This is good. So we started in 2011. We started as an informal group of urban activists, taking action in big cities. That was the beginning. But right now, we are active in smaller cities and towns as well. We've been an official non-governmental organization. And since 2017 and in 2020, I can say that we have over 40 organizations, which are members of our Congress. And what is our common vision? We have 16, what thesis, 16 believes as to what cities should be like. And we believe we should stress the importance of participation. So people who live in cities should co-decide about how the urban planning is implemented, what the city looks like, looks like, and how cities can adjust to the climate change. What are our challenges for now? I think we are facing the following challenges. I think there is a lot of mistrust, social mistrust. And we are trying to deal with it. We want to make the process, the decision-making process, more inclusive so that people who live in cities can actually co-decide about what is going on in the city. And that's why some of our urban movements are also involved in politics. And there are many activists. It is our common good and not private property with regard to public spaces. Also, we want to inform, we want to advise, we want to provide people with information, we want to have impact on the education that people who live in cities are provided with. We want to increase the self-awareness in terms of the urban management. And also, we want to promote communication in education. So broad education for people who live in cities and towns. And also, I think that the public debate has a very low quality, unfortunately. And especially last year, we had a new challenge. It is not included in my presentation. But this is something we are all experiencing. So how resilient cities are when there was a crisis. It's a variety of crises that are related to the climate, for example, or public health like the pandemic right now. So our activities are related to some particular areas. The citizens and how they are active and how we can promote that. According to our goals, we understand urban democracy not just as participation in elections, but we also want people who live in cities to be involved in the decision-making process on an ongoing basis. And they should be encouraged to be active in that area. So it's not just about casting a vote every four years. People who live in cities should be treated as subjects rather than objects of the urban management. And they should be involved in the decision-making process on an ongoing basis. Now, urban planning, in terms of architecture, we rely on education. So we present different forms that can be used by the MERS to get people involved in urban planning. And we also share good practices. You can find a lot of information on this on our website of the Congress of Urban Movement. So that's our platform where we share our ideas, our concepts. And we also publish different articles, different texts. And if you really can learn about our vision of a sustainable city. Also, we are active in the area of consulting local specialists, local experts. So we want to promote consultations in the area of urban planning, irrespective of whether it's just optional consultation or obligatory consultation. We want to promote that. And we want to get the local experts involved. But also we want to get the local community involved. So we are very active with participating in all those processes. Also, participation in budgets. This is something we've been promoting as well. There was a significant change last year because the law was amended. And right now it is obligatory to have a voting system for this budget. However, there are many towns which introduce this concept of deliberative decision making. So people just met together and decided on their priorities in terms of investments, a finance from that budget. We also educate people with regard to taking common positions or getting involved in the urban management. We also want to have some impact on the central administration. We are trying to introduce new ideas within the public debate. And we are very, very active in the area of revitalization in over 20 cities and towns. We have projects on that. And we always take an individual approach, which is adjusted to the particular town or city. But also on the central level, we're active in that area as an umbrella organization. So we want to have some impact on the national central policy in that area. And there was an idea that a ministry of 1,000 cities should be established. That idea has not been implemented yet. However, this may still be the case in the future. And what are our recommendations? As you can see on my slide in the presentation, we want to promote being patient. We want to promote trust. We are building support networks for urban activists, but also for non-governmental organizations, which are active in cities and towns, irrespective of whether they are members of our umbrella organization or not. We are trying to support them. So we want to be that umbrella under which they can come to receive support and protection. We are also active within the public debate. And we are introducing topics which were not present in the public debate five or six years ago. So they were not taken seriously. And during the last campaign before the elections, all the politicians running addressed those issues, irrespective of which part of the political spectrum they represented. So that we've been really successful in this, I think. Also, there is interdisciplinary cooperation and multi-sectoral cooperation on the national level and on the local level. We are able to organize different workshops to support the local activists, urban activists. We want to share good practices. We want to share knowledge on how to get involved in the decision-making process in a city or in a town. And also, we provide different comments. And we take positions whenever decisions are being made with regard to national laws. Thank you. Thank you a lot for your presentation. Indeed, I hope that our audience have been able to understand the important role played by the Congress of Urban Movements in Poland. We wish you all the best. And we hope that you'll be able to use the green platform of cities active all over Europe. Just let me add one thing. I am really, really happy with our participation with the greens, not just the party, but also different green activists, because it is clear that it's one of the biggest challenges for the cities to adjust to the climate change and the consequences of the climate crisis. So we cannot really cope with that challenge if we do not work together. So OK. And now, Mirosława Stępień, you manage the organization Aksia Konin. This is also one of the member organizations of the Congress of Urban Movements. Your urban local organization in Konin joined the Congress of Urban Movements. And what specific challenges your organization must deal with in Konin? I'm sorry, I needed to turn on my microphone. It's good to hear you all. And thank you for inviting me. So today, I'll be talking a little bit about Aksia Konin and what we do. We joined the Congress of Urban Movements about two years ago. And since then, well, this is an organization that has been functioning for about 10 years. And we've focused mostly on a lot of the things that the Congress of Urban Movements promotes. So this is, among other things, local participation and influence on decision making. We did a lot of work on development and local development. This was in our early years where we, for example, prepared the first civic or citizen-based strategy for the development of the region, which, unfortunately, was never implemented because there was no interest at that time. But what has happened in recent years is that a lot of the ideas that we came to the floor with 10 years ago have started to be implemented and have started to gain recognition. So I can say that both the issues that were brought up first by the Congress of Urban Movements and also by the Greens in Poland and throughout Europe are now finally finding a platform in which they can be heard and in which they can be implemented. So after those first years, what we've been doing in recent years is because this is a coal region. This is a lignite coal region where I live. So more specifically, we've been focusing on phasing out coal and on the issue of the just transition of the region, which is very much connected with climate change. And since this is a lignite mining region, it's also very strongly connected to issues of water because we've had huge losses of water in this region. So one of the very important aspects that we have had to bring up in recent years is the issue of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. And so we've also had specific achievements in this field because two years ago, we started talking to the local government about introducing a specific plan of adapting and mitigating climate change. And through our cooperation with the local government and with the local administration, in recent years, there has been more movement. And right now, Conyn has quite a sensible, reasonable plan of climate adaptation and climate mitigation. There is also a very specific developed plan to deal with the development of the green and blue infrastructure, so the development of parks and lakes and taking care of the river that runs through our city. So this shows that and a lot of the knowledge that we were able to use for getting these things across was the knowledge that we could get through our contacts, through the networking and through the workshops that we had within such structures like the Congress of Urban Movements. So such networks, because we are actually a part of a couple of such networks, one of them deals with urban movements, another one deals with issues connected to phasing out coal. In both these movements, which are nationwide movements, we are moving forward through cooperation, through exchanging information, through developing contact with experts. Another thing that I would also like to stress is that our region is planning to achieve climate neutrality in 2014. We already have a plan in place that will probably be confirmed officially by the end of the year, at the beginning of next year. So one thing that we should note is that even if the national government in countries like Poland are not on board fully in terms of what they want of achieving climate goals, the situation is completely different in regions like mine, which must be supported because such regions, it's a little bit like the United States where the national government might not have been setting or fulfilling the Paris agreement goals. The same is in Poland, we might not be achieving that on the national level, but there are already regions here and ours is a specific example of that that have a specific plan to achieve climate neutrality. And I think that's the greatest achievement that we've had here locally. And I think that's what I'd like to end with because I think it's a good positive note that we can finish with. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miuka. And in the Congress of Urban Movement, we have also another organization in Silesia in another coal region, and you cooperate with each other. So, Lightning Neat Region with Black Coal Region. So, also the just transition is one of important topic of the Congress of Urban Movements. Kativan de Velde, for the Green European Foundation, cities as a place of permanent change are one of puritary topics. And the Oikosting Tank is a leading organization to explore it. Again, where Oikosting is based is a real laboratory for the governance of the city as a commons. And the commons as a tool of transforming the city was for a few years an object of Jeff's studies. And you were a part of this. What is the project that you are coordinating now about? What Polish local governments and urban activists could learn from this project? Kativan de Velde, please. Thank you, Eva, for the question. The aim of our project is to highlight transformative urban strategies in the European Union and to present another vision on the EU. So, we all share this logic and dominant vision on the EU as a cooperation between member states with its successes and its difficulties. Wait, someone is handling the presentation other than me? Okay, sorry. So, the European Union is currently facing huge challenges. We know it has its successes, but also its difficulties. The public and the political debate is dominated by migration, climate change, fair and healthy food, sustainable mobility, et cetera. And we also see nation states turning away from the Union and becoming more protectionist. They consider isolation more as an answer to challenges than cooperation. Look at Brexit, for example. Also, the EU has a strong focus on economy and the free market, but its social and environmental agenda is still insufficient. But on the other hand, as you can see on the slide here, the EU also has a rich landscape of progressive cities developing transformative projects and policies for food, mobility, agriculture, energy, circular economy, you name it. And there appears to be a clear difference between national governance and local governance. On a national level, some governments, for instance, invest in the automobile industry. They build more motorways to be able to accommodate more cars while many cities are currently actually investing in the mobility of tomorrow, making streets and city centers car-free like the city of Ghent does in Belgium. Also, on EU level, policies are not always in line with the local level. With the common agricultural policy, the EU sticks to industrial agro-business instead of sustainable urban food policies. So it finances large-scale industrial agriculture rather than local small-scale food initiatives. But on the other hand, in Milan, for instance, they have an urban food policy pact that works to develop sustainable food systems that are inclusive and resilient. And so, like Evelina Uttobruk already mentioned, besides these progressive cities, there is also a growing number of city networks like fearless cities and energy cities which are proving their worth. Now, there are three important domains, I think, where cities can make a big difference. It's democracy, economy, and climate. Democracy today is not able to solve some contemporary issues. For instance, the Yellow Vests versus President Macron in France or the tension between Chancellor Angela Merkel and East Germany or the global youth and adults going on strike for the climate. So we'll need to reinvent democracy. And this is where municipalism comes into play. So municipalism is the self-governance and the participatory governance of cities. And because municipalism helps mobilize citizens to participate deeply in local problem solving. So the citizen becomes actually a partner against neoliberal deregulation. Now, when it comes to economy, the current economic system fails as became clear after the financial crisis in 2009. The global market improved the life of some at the expense of the quality of life of many others. So more and more people advocate for an alternative economic system. One where increasing the common good for everyone becomes more important than profit for a small group. For this, more and more citizens are taking matters into their own hands by setting up these citizen collectives, commons as we call them, to create alternatives based on the needs of society instead of private gain. And in these commons, people work together to produce or manage what they find valuable and want to take care of on the basis of their own self-determined rules. And Catalonia in Spain is an interesting example of an open source commons based economy. They have this cooperative logic that is locally embedded yet at the same time they share their knowledge, expertise and technology worldwide. Now, when it comes to climate, we have the climate adaptive cities. Their focus is not only on lowering CO2 emissions, but also on dealing with changes that are occurring already today in cities. Like the example that I show you here of Nurebro in Copenhagen. In 2018, the city of Copenhagen launched a climate adaptation project which aims to regenerate the city's Nurebro area by establishing new ecosystems to ease flooding. And at the same time by creating new social spaces. So this is a beautiful example of social and climate adaptive objectives brought together in a city with involvement of local citizens and local traders. And also in Belgium, we have some great examples and I already mentioned Gantt. It successfully enrolled an ambitious mobility plan to give the city back to its citizens instead of cars. There is no time to enter in detail here, but the Gantt mobility plan and countless other transformative policies in cities worldwide show that bold policies aiming at social ecological transformation really can provide a significant answer to various challenges in terms of livability. So if anyone here knows any other beautiful examples of transformative cities, I'm all ears, please do not hesitate to share them with me. Thank you. Thanks a lot, Cathy. Thanks all our wonderful women panellists. I'm particularly glad to have this first panel, completely female panel. So speaking about the cities and we know how important is the role of women in all this transition. To finish, I would like just to ask you one question because we are speaking about urban movements, about all kinds of organizations and also about political movements. My question is just one minute for each of you. In some cities like in Barcelona, but also in many other progressive parties like Greece and certain left parties make coalition with urban movements and other organizations to transform together their city, to take power in the city and to change it, to change the model of governance. Is this for you a desirable model for a successful transition? Is it realistic to try to build such electoral coalitions? Marta, what do you think about it? Marta, we can't hear you. Maybe you can hear me now. I was muted. Well, with such big challenges as climate changes and the necessity to adapt cities to climate changes, I think we need to have a very broad coalition regardless of views that one has related to ideologies or worldview or any other area of life in the city. Now, as regards the challenges that are the basic urban challenges today, I think every coalition is positive. Miuka. What is your opinion? I think it's absolutely necessary because we're at such a point that it's difficult to achieve the really fast and complicated changes that are necessary at this point in our lives, at this point in history, without establishing very broad cooperation with different movements. Sometimes even movements with which we do not agree in certain aspects. So working, for example, here in a region where we have a huge issue with how the future of this region should be structured, how we should deal with the challenges of lack of water, how we should deal with a complete change of the economy. What you find is that you sit down at the table with a large variety of different people. This means that we build coalitions for specific purposes. We build coalitions to achieve specific goals. And in other areas, we might not be able to cooperate, but those specific goals are something that you can make happen together. In terms of politically, this is of course always a bit more difficult, but I think that activists have to get more involved in politics. And very often they need political support and cooperation in order to introduce the specific ideas that they have into sort of have it translated into specific legal terms, specific acts and specific political decisions. Thank you. So this means that it's absolutely necessary for us to enter into various types of coalitions also for election purposes. Thank you very much, Miuka. Kati, what is your opinion? Kati, what is your opinion on the topic about the coalitions between movements and parties to change transform cities? I absolutely totally agree. By mobilizing urban movements and citizens, you create support and deep participation which can help to push things forward in a good direction. Like I mentioned before, citizens and urban movements can be great partners against neoliberal deregulation. So I totally agree with you. Thank you. And Evelin, the last word is for you, for this panel. Is it me, Eva? Yes, yes, yes. Evelin, yes, it's you. I didn't hear you. Okay. Now, of course, where you can make a progressive coalition, you have to do it. And there is a question of coalition with other parties, progressive parties. Of course, we need it. And here in Belgium or in our cities, we are in coalition with some progressive parties. The error of some other progressive parties is to oppose to often the social question to the environment and climate question. And we say, we agree that the first victims of climate change and the pollution are the more poor and weak of our population. And that's the concept of climate emergency. It's a global project, environmental, economic and social. And then the coalition, of course, with the civil society, it's what we do, which we try to do with NGOs, with associations also, but also with all the public opinion. And here, for example, in Brussels, we try to do it to share that with the population. But be careful because it's also, I don't like to say the citizens because we can see also in our municipality that of course the citizens are not always agree with each other on the question, for example, on mobility and their pedagogic empathy, you need to have it absolutely and to take time also with the citizen to explain what you want, to explain your project, to explain also the evolution and your agenda. But of course, the more large progress if you can do, we have to do because there is really a climate emergency today. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for this wonderful panel. The next one, so now we will have a short break and we will meet again at five to four o'clock for a panel with river activists. Thank you very much. Short break, in action. Welcome to our second panel of the Seminar of Civil Society in Action. This one will be dedicated to river. Let's save rivers. I would start with a short presentation to show to you very subjective presentation of our, why we as a Green Foundation, we are so working so much with rivers and working on this topic. So everything started a few years ago with a seminar, Jeff's Seminar, Water Common, Good at Risk, when the activist of WWF Poland, Przemysław Nawrowski, who is working on rivers for years already, told us that between 2007 and 2015, about 20,000 kilometers of rivers, of small and middle-sized rivers in Poland, have been modernized like this, like you see on the picture in Poland, Music European Founds. It was so terrible information that we started to think what we can do about it together. And at the next Green Summer Academy in Poland in July 2016, so it was Jeff Green Summer School, we invited a lot of activists as many as we could of river activists that were people who were working on rivers for a long time already, but each organization a little bit separately. And we organized on the right, you see the seminar, where we are looking for what we can do together, how we can organize ourselves together to create a coalition. At the same Green Summer Academy on the left, you see there was a public debate with Rebecca Harms, who was the co-chair of the Green Group in the European Parliament at this moment. And on the right, the person on the right is Przemek Nawrocki, who was the person who initiated all this green work on rivers. And this public debate was dedicated to the project of building a new dam in this region. And of course, to make our green activists feel the topic, to understand how important it is we invited our colleague, local counselor from Poland, who is the person with a green jacket on the boat, and he has a small company of ecotourism, and he showed us with the better ornithologists we could the river and how wonderful the Vistula River is. So, but we didn't, so a few months ago, the coalition was formed, and after, so we gave this first push for the coalition to become a reality. And after, at each Green Summer School, we had something about rivers. So you see here some activists present, and at 2018 Green Summer School, we helped to organize inside the Green Summer School the first river university with all the river activists. And on the bottom picture, you see the happening river sisters with Cecilia Malik that she will be one of our speakers today. So at the next, the last Green Summer University in 2019, we made a big jump in the other river. It's action that is supported very strongly led by Klub Gaia of Jacek Božek, who is one of speaker today also. And with Cecilia Malik, because we are partner of Congress of Women, who will be the last panel today, we inside for the Congress of Women, we invited all the women participating in a Congress in September 2019 to become sisters rivers, and it's the photo of all the participants as sisters rivers to inform and show how important rivers are. Finally, at our last Green Days in Sokowowska in August this year, when we could meet in person, in reality, we had two panels about water and about artivism and water and rivers artivism. So you see the topic is very important. And it's not only because of this destruction of rivers that was done already, but also because of governmental projects. So thanks, thank you very much for your attention, and now I would like to introduce our panelist of today. I don't know if Jacek Božek is already with us. If we could have a connection, can I have an information? Because I don't see the panelist yet. So I don't know who of the panelist is already here. I don't see Jacek yet, okay. So I see Radek Gavlik, so now we will continue in Polish. Radosław Gavlik, he's a member, who is also a founder of the Green Party. He was a member of the Polish parliament for four legislation periods. He worked also for the ministry of the environment. And now here's the health man of the coalition Let's Save the Rivers. We also have Izabela Zygmunt, who used to be a member of the Green Party. And she was also a coordinator at the Polish Green Network. And she's also a health woman of the coalition, Let's Save the Rivers. We also have Cecilia Malik with us. She's an activist, an artist, a performer. And she founded this movement Sisters of the Rivers. And she's a member of the Green Party. And she's also an activist within the coalition Let's Save the Rivers. We also have Artur Furdina. He's an environmentalist. He specializes in fish research. And he's also a member of the association Friends of Rivers. And he's also active in the coalition Let's Save the Rivers. And I also hope that Jacek Bozeg will join us. He's not just a member and a founder of the Green Party, but he was also one of the first co-presidents of the party. He's also a member of the Gaia Club and the health man of the coalition, Let's Save the Rivers. So let's start with challenges. Iza, let's start with you, if you don't mind. What's the biggest threat for the Polish rivers right now? And how do you want to protect the Polish rivers? And also how is it related to the European Green Deal? Voice over to you. And I should speak Polish. Yes, yes, yes, you should speak Polish. Okay. So hello, good afternoon. The biggest challenge for the Polish rivers is a very common belief of the decision-makers who believe that a river in its natural condition is actually a threat that should be tackled with. They are always experts, although decision-makers believe that rivers need to be regulated. And we've heard such comments from people who managed the rivers in Poland and they referred to rivers as wild rivers and there was something bad for them. And we see it in a completely different way. For us, a wild river is a good river. For them, it's the other way around. And now in the context of the European Green Deal, I think we need a breakthrough. Something needs to change and we should focus more on nature-based solutions. However, this is not yet the case because the politicians and decision-makers still believe that rivers are more of some kind of infrastructure than pure nature. So they want to regulate rivers. They want to control the Polish rivers. And it's very difficult to approach them, to reach them with our arguments regarding also how people can be protected from droughts and floods. They believe that concrete is the best solution, but this is not true. And also, there is one more topic which is very important. The plans of our government to transform the Polish big rivers odor and viscola into big international waterways. That's the plan of the Polish government. So they want those big rivers to become canals, actually. Radik, what's the biggest threat for the odor river? A river that Poland shares with the Czech Republic and Germany. And how do you want to protect this river from that threat? Well, I've got a detailed presentation regarding this issue. However, I believe that I can just give you a gist of that presentation. I will give you just the most important information. As I was saying, we have a problem with the approach. The common approach of the decision-makers is that rivers should be regulated, should be straightened, should there to be no trees around those rivers. They want to have embankments there. And this is actually some kind of devastation of the nature around the river. And actually, the threat of floods has increased and not decreased. And 20,000 kilometers of rivers that were destroyed between 2010 and 2015, it's a disaster, and it costs 1.7 billion euros. And we expected the European Union to take action. And we thought that there would be consequences, serious consequences for the Polish government. However, there were none, the European Union, that nothing, even though these EU funds were spent on such ineffective activities. And the situation is as follows. Please take a look at the picture. This is a picture which has been taken this year. It's the region of Podkarpace. There were some protected species there. So it was an important habitat of some protected species. And it was all destroyed because of the activities that were carried out there, even though we advised otherwise. So it was really a big tragedy for that area, which is also an area protected under the Natura 2000 program. And now the older river, I think those people, are just members of this hydro concrete lobby, and they want to get as much money as possible. It's really grotesque. I think it's a fraud of public officers. And it's the taxpayer that is paying for all that at the end of the day. So just to describe it in a short way, there is an agreement signed with the World Bank. It was signed in 2015. It's about this German-Polish border. The aim is to regulate the older river in that region so that ice breakers can operate there to protect people from floods. So they were just afraid of floods and they wanted to solve this problem in some way. And they came up with this idea to have two ice breakers and they built these two ice breakers. However, they are just too big and they are submerged much deeper than they should be. And that's why so much money needs to be spent now on dredging the older river so that it's deeper and so that these two ice breakers can operate there. And also these two ice breakers were named after these two officials making this decision, which is also grotesque in my opinion. And my presentation is in Polish. I'm not sure whether you can see my presentation. So what's the role of the European Union in that process? I think the European Union has nothing to be proud of because $210 million were provided by the European Union in funds to support that investment. And that investment doesn't make any sense. It does not protect people from floods and it destroys the environment, the nature around that region which is protected under the Natura 2000 program and the threat of floods is actually increased and not decreased. And also there is no economic benefit for the region. And let me tell you that there are absolutely no goods transported on the older river. I took a trip there in summer for some days and we didn't see any boats carrying goods. And I think that these officials provided wrong information and I think this is a fraud because they explained that the project would protect people from floods but it's just not true. This is not the reality. And actually they even admit that they wanted to make the river a waterway to transport goods but this is not happening so this economic benefit is actually not taking place. So we took action in June 2016. There was a protest in front of the building of the World Bank in Warsaw, in the city, in the center of Warsaw. So it was a big protest and there were a lot of green activists there and many people were able to learn that all this project is actually a fraud. Even people who do not have any expert knowledge. Also we lodged a complaint with the European Commission and then we explained how these funds provided by the European Commission were spent on this project. That doesn't make any sense at all. We tried to intervene with the World Bank but nothing really happened and we also sent a petition towards Lavandelion. It's a petition that is available in German and in Polish and in English so I encourage you to sign it if you don't mind. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. I think the following fact deserves our attention. The minister of waterways boasted in an interview that he was able to mislead the World Bank and obtain funds for an anti-flat project even though the real objective was to regulate the other river. And now it's hard to stop the project. Once the project was launched, it's difficult to stop it. So that's why we need your support and your signatures. Oh, Mas, Cecilia Malik, you're an artist, a painter, and you're an environmental activist and you do it through your art. For quite some time now, for a few years actually, you've been fighting for rivers within the framework of a coalition, let's save rivers. And could you tell us how you, as an artist, activists, how have you been fighting to save rivers? Well, I come from Krakow. I live in Krakow at the Vistula River. And an ornithologist, Kajemierz Balasz, would take me to walk along the river. It was seven years ago. And he showed me that concrete bottom was worse than anything else, than plastic in the rivers. And he said that now the European Union is sponsoring it, is funding it, we're damaging rivers. And the general public doesn't care. The Poles know that it's not so good to cut trees. They know a little bit about smog, but as regards the protection of rivers, they have no idea. So then I found out that there was this idea of dredging and of dredging my favorite river, Białka, in the mountains. And I organized the first beautiful protest in order to defend that river from being regulated. And I encouraged artists, friends, citizens of Krakow to make a plea, to make a plea from a material. So we were able to do that. And we experienced, or we saw, that art can become an agora, a space that helps us to talk to the journalists, the local community, politicians, and activists. So we made a plate of material like you do on hair. So the pictures that I saw were horrible. And I decided I do not agree that this happens. This is the Białka River, where we organized the first protest. And this is where I got to know the first sternment of the coalition, let's save rivers. Gaia, Jacek Božek, Professor Roman Żurek. And now we are working with them. But back in 2016, things became really difficult. Our new government, law and justice, decided that small local businesses are not enough. It's not enough to destroy small rivers. And they decided to turn big rivers into transport rivers and build dams on the river Vestula and other, planned back in the 60s under the Communist rule. And this is when, let's save rivers, coalition was established. And so ecological organizations decided to join forces. And I came up with an artistic happening. I invited women to choose their favorite rivers and give them the voice. And sisters of the Vestula River came to save it, to say out loud that we do not agree that rivers are devastated, big, last, natural rivers of Europe, our common asset. We do not agree to that in the times of climate changes. Unfortunately, those happenings were not presented by the media, were not shown by the media, because the media in Poland stopped showing topics that are not comfortable for the government. And the opposition media simply didn't understand the topic of rivers. So a year later, we managed to organize a more effective campaign. We decided to present the topic of rivers in fashion magazines. We organized boat trip along the Vestula River for women. We showed them different topics around the rivers. We made some uniforms by hand, manually, and in big cities all over Poland. Instead of organizing protests, we organized fashion shows. During that period, we were also distributing leaflets prepared by Green Mind. And the leaflets presented knowledge about the Vestula River, how natural rivers benefit the general public, for example, by supplying fresh water and self-cleaning properties. So our joint event organized together with WWF and Green Mind, and we visited the Ministry for Water Management and Inland Waterways. We presented them this appeal for the protection of rivers. And we submitted this appeal. Our most recent campaign and action that we've launched, a very difficult one, because the topic in general is really difficult, is a protest against a big dam that the local politicians want to build in Beskid Niski in the south of Poland. This is our visit at the Ministry. So at the beginning of this year, Cecilia, you need to accelerate. At the beginning of this year, local politicians started their efforts to obtain some funds from the World Bank to get support for the development of a dam and to flood this valley. People were supposed to be resettled. A church cemetery was supposed to be flooded. A whole village was supposed to be eroded. The project of the dam was established back in the 60s. Cecilia, you have one minute. There were no public consultations. We organized a protest. But because of the pandemic, we couldn't involve people. To protest against the dam, we invited some cows, which were grazing on beautiful pastures in the valley at the river. They had those big banners, leave our pastures alone. We want our pastures and we want meadows, not the dam. We feel so good here. We're staying. Thank you so much. Cecilia, thank you very much. I wish you every success because your success is the success of our rivers and the success of future generations. So we have Jacek Bożek with us now. Jacek Bożek, like I said, he's a founding member of the Green Party. And it's a first co-chair. Today he's a Church of Gajak Lab and the Sternman of, let's say, Rivers Coalition. So he's been fighting for rivers. You've been a river activist for a long time now. You've been observing how the world, Europe, and Poland has been changing. In your opinion, what should we do today for the rivers and actually for ourselves and the future generations? Hello, everyone. It's so nice to listen to the voice of activists. Today, we are talking about rivers. Rivers mean flow, but in my opinion. And this is the title of my small presentation. The question to us all is, how do you manage something that's irreversible? Things going on around us cannot be reversed. They are irreversible processes. So my friends and myself have been active in this area. Starting from 1990s, I've been trying to make sure that no single dam can be built on the Vistula river. And we make sure that two dams were blocked in spite of all those measures, as you will see the world, has not been changing as we would like it to. So how do you manage something that's unavoidable? I think what we can do together, the Greens in Poland, the Greens in Europe, and NGOs, we need to look for good practices and present them. But not only in Brussels or Warsaw. We have to go lower to the level of municipalities to show that we can manage those things that are irreversible. We need to start showing all those young movements that politics is extremely important, and a lot depends on it. Such universities, as you've been organizing ever, should be addressed not only at young people, but also at heads of municipalities, heads of counties, because they have this local approach, and they need to get concrete examples showing that what we do is in line with what they and their community want. So if possible, if there is enough will, enough energy, and money, we could start creating as Greens and NGOs those clusters, if you will, economic, environmental, social clusters, because it's all about changing culture. We're still acting in a very fragmented way. And great that we are able to save some forests, rivers, or animals. But the situation is really dire. But without any concrete examples, it's going to be hard for us to translate it into the local level. So my suggestion for the Greens is let's sit down together. Let's find the methods that will build bridges between what's old, and what's new, and what's coming. Thank you so much. Thank you. Very clever suggestions indeed. We will give it some more thoughts after a conference. So we will discuss this topic again, this topic of what further steps should be made. Now, voice over to Artur Fordena. Artur, you are trying to repair rivers that have been destroyed. Could you please tell us how this is possible? Good evening. Good afternoon. Well, I was very lucky because some 20 years ago, I met most of the panelists that we have today. And we were able to talk about rivers such a long time ago. And nowadays, we have to go back to address the sources of the problem. I am not as pessimistic as Jacek is. I still believe that we have some time, like five seconds, to come to our senses. However, we have to stop thinking just about the rivers. And we need to understand that the key solution of the problem is the whole catchment area. Not just the river itself. And because of that, it is so important to remember what Jacek said. These cluster areas have been designated by the nature itself. And such a cluster is the catchment area of every river. So we need to extend our green message to stress that we want to fix not just the rivers themselves, but also the whole catchment areas, not just for the fish, but also for people, for us. This is the key issue. We need to address the problem at its roots. If we don't do this, we'll lose. And the current picture of our rivers as the result of decades, of centuries of changes which were actually even more comprehensive and even faster when Poland started receiving EU funds. So the EU fund accelerated these changes of the rivers. So that's the only way of solving the problem. And I must say that I have met so many open and friendly people who are happy to learn about all those problems. And these were NGOs members of people who just like spending their time on the river bank, people who like fishing, and also technicians, hydro technicians, and the members of the local government. So there are a lot of people who are willing to talk to us. However, there is actually not enough understanding on the side of the politicians. And we need to change that before the nature changes that itself. Because the coalition, Living Earth, says that we only learn to respect water when there is a shortage of it. So hopefully, there will be no shortage of water that will make us understand the problem. We'll manage to understand it sooner. Thank you, Otto, for these clever words. And some countries, there are councils of stakeholders on the catchment area levels. And maybe we could implement a similar solution in Poland. But as you are saying, the knowledge that people have is crucial. And we need to get that knowledge across to political parties, not just the Green Party, not just the Green Movement, because the Green activists already have that awareness and that knowledge. And they are doing whatever they can do to get that across to the political mainstream. However, we need more partners to join our coalition to share that knowledge. And we also need journalists who could help us spread that knowledge. And now we are coming towards the end of this short panel. And not much time is left. But still, we have some time left. And I would like to ask you to tell me what your address would be. If you had a chance to address someone, whom would you address? And what would you tell that person? Let's start with Arthur. Well, today I would address Vody Polskie, which is the Polish National Water Management Company. And I would address that company to ask it to implement a national program of re-naturalizing the Polish waters, which should be as comprehensive as possible, because right now the Polish rivers are drying out. So I cannot see any alternative solutions if you want to fix the problem of water management in Poland. So OK, thank you, Arthur. Jacek, voice over to you. What would be your address? Whom would you like to address? And what would be the content of that address? Well, I would say come to your senses. Hello, hello, can you hear me? I think that we need to build bridges. And that would be my message. We need education, because right now we have like a 19th century education system in Poland. So that needs changing. We also need the consumers to change. And we need to teach people that every single person is a citizen irrespective of the color of their skin. We need to teach people that women have their rights, that animals have their rights, that rivers have their rights, too. Well, I don't know whom I should address with that message. But people who are listening to us right now and we ourselves, we all understand that we need to work together. So maybe we need to build something that has already been successful a number of times in Poland, so round tables. Even if there are people we do not agree with, we could all meet at a round table to have this discussion. And I wish us strength in that process. Cecilia, voice over to you. What would be your message and whom would you like to address with your message? Well, my message would be as follows. I would like to address the politicians. I would like to tell them not to wait, not to waste time. They should not wait for the big party to support them. They should get united straight away. And they should be driven by the common good and not by some success stories within the party. And that's what we can see in Poland very clearly. There are politicians who are driven by their egos. And they would rather wait for years for something to change instead of reaching an agreement and doing what needs to be done right now straight away. Thank you. And rather gavelic voice over to you. What would be your message and whom would you like to address with your message? Well, if there are terrorists, you need to take the weapons away from them. And this hydro-concrete lobby, they have the weapons. And we need to take that weapons away from them. And that, well, they keep receiving funds from the EU. So it is our concern that these recovery funds could be spent on destroying the rivers as it happened in the past. So I would like to address the European Union to introduce criteria related to the protection of rivers and the protection of nature. So if any funds are provided by the European Union, they should be spent without violating the rights of the rivers and without destroying the nature. Thank you. And Iza, last but not least, what would be your message? All these plans we are opposing, they violate the water framework directive. And there is also a strategy for biodiversity of the European Union. And the European Union undertook to make sure that the EU legislation with regard to the protection of the nature is enforced in a more efficient way. And I think that would be my message to the European Union. The European Union has to make sure that the EU law is enforced with regard to the protection of the nature and to nature conservation. Thank you a lot. So here we are. The second panel is over. The second panel about the rivers. The next panel, so now we will have again a short break, break until 4.45. And the next panel will be the panel of the young activists who are the participants of our first European green activist training. So have a short break with us and we see each other at 4.45. Thank you. Hello and welcome to the next panel of the conference dedicated to young activists. My name is Aleksandra Koweczek and I'm here with Artur Giotorek who will help me to host this session. First we would like to introduce our participants, the young activists. And the young activists that we are hosting today are the members of the EGAT Poland European Green Activist Training Group. This is a selected group of young activists from Poland who are active in various fields of civil society. They work in young people working in various areas of green activism. We would like to share their voices, show you their profiles and their paths towards green activism in Poland. Next slide, please. And what we would like to tell you a little bit about is the European Green Activist Training. It is a training that is happening in five different countries funded by the Green European Foundation and co-organized, co-hosted here in Poland by the Strefa Zielanie Foundation. In this training, selected group of 20 young activists from Poland took part in three online and offline meetings here in Poland, as well as a learning phase. And now they are in a phase of developing their own civil society projects. Later on next year in May, they're going to meet with other European green activists in Brussels or online, depending on the pandemic situation, to showcase their projects and learn about the functioning of the European Union. So the aim of our project is to network, to bring together young people from all over Europe to transform the European society and influence the current situation. And with us in studio is one of the activists, Nadia Wierzbicka. The others will be joining us via the online conference. On the next slide, we have our participants. And let me just shortly introduce them before we give the floor to them. So first of all, Mateusz Orzachowski, climate and human rights activist, member of the Youth Climate Council, founder of Climate Copernicus, participant of Greenpeace Changemakers Action Camp, and a vegan, Weronika Szkudlarek, who is a member of Polish Greens. She focuses in her activism on ecology, human rights, and medical education. She works as a local coordinator of Women's Rights Center Program in IFMSA Poland. Nadia Wierzbicka, who is also here with us, is a local activist and freelance artist. She attempts to introduce social change with artistic tools. She's also a volunteer for a campaign against homophobia and participant of GAF project in EGAT. Next is Weronika Dąbrowicz, who is a 21-year-old computer science student at Łódź University, privately a math and space kick. She takes part in a variety of organizations, such as the Youth Organization Razum, Fridays for Future, in Poland called Młodzieżowe Strejki Lymetyczne. Bartosz Marzec, he's a climate activist, young political activist working for a better future in Lublin, who is also one of 32 advisors to the Minister of Climate in Poland. And last, but not least, Kuba Bilski, who is a local extract activist who graduated from software development at Leymouth University. He organized climate events, marches, and happenings. So the floor goes to our first speaker, Mateusz Orzechowski. OK, Mateusz, are you with us? Yeah. OK, the floor is yours. Yeah, thank you. So hi, everyone, and let's go. So I started my activism because I could not longer live possibly watching what was happening around me. And I wanted to contribute to the fight for climate and the basic human rights. I was also led by the IPCC report by what I learned for the first time about what is really hurting us, about our planet dying. But how did I start it? And the next slide, please. So it started quite loosely. I have made a petition to the city authorities to ban the use of single-use plastic in municipal institutions. I started collecting signatures after my neighbors. And then I thought, hey, why not do it with someone? Maybe someone has the same needs to act as me. So I posted an ad on Facebook that I was looking for people to join a group dealing with the fight for the environment and climate. And this is how the later Copernicus Climate Collective was created. At the beginning, about 10 people came to the group with whom we collected 300 signatures and brought them to the office. Then together with my team, we organized the first youth climate strike in Georgia, attended by over 200 people and sparked the first debate on climate change in our city. So are the beginnings easy? It depends, whether you come across cool, active people or have to act on your own. Nevertheless, it is worth using your energy to do something important. It brings a lot of good humor, while something you did made a real change. In our case, our activities led us to participate in such events as the youth network event and the European Green Activism Training, where we operate not only on the local or national level, but also at European one. Remember, however, that activism is a marathon, not a sprint. Don't do what you don't have the strength to do. Don't sacrifice if you don't feel it. Don't step outside your comfort zone if you are not ready for it. Because such action can only carp or kill your activism, taking away your will to continue. But from there, we have to move on the important question. So next slide, please. And who can be an activist? And literally anyone. Everyone can get involved in their local community or in nationwide activism. Activism has no imaginary framework that if you don't block the streets, you can't be an activist. Any activity is activism. Getting a basket of menstrual products for your school, going to a protest, or creating a petition. And much more, anyone who feels willing to act can get involved with activism. So create your own groups. Join others and take action. Thank you. Amazing. Thank you very much. And now we go directly to our second EGAT participant, Veronica Škudlarek. Are you with us, Veronica? OK. Yes. Go on. The floor is yours. I would like to show you a brief summary of two types of social activity that I'm the most dedicated to, which are climate, political activism, and some kind of medical activism, I would say. For me, the difference between being a volunteer and being an activist is that activism is something more than just volunteering. It always comes from anger or disagreement. And I believe that you become an activist when you decide to take the initiative and change the world in some way. It can be the whole big world or just your little one, your city, your neighborhood. And this is how my activism started. Since I remember I've been working as a volunteer for many NGOs, foundations, things like that. And I found it a perfect way to spend my free time productively, meet interesting people who are passionate about what they're doing. But at some point, I felt that it's not enough. In high school, I got really angry and realized that some people, even in my own city, die in car accidents because the bystanders are too worried or don't have enough knowledge to help them in a proper way. And that's easy. So I became a leader of youth paramedic group in my school. And I started teaching people in my city about first aid. I organized a lot of classes for my peers, for my teachers, and with a group of friends. We even performed some performances on the street where we pretended to be injured. And this way, we encouraged residents of our city to train their first aid skills. After becoming a medical student, I continued my medical activism. And I joined International Federation of Medical Student Associations, where I'm a local coordinator of Women's Rights Center Program, in which I organize lectures and workshops connected with, for example, domestic violence or labor law for women. And they do it because I don't agree with the way how women are often treated in workplagues or at the universities. And I also don't agree with the current tack on women's rights in Poland. And I believe that the best way to fight against it in this particular case is education. So I tried to spread the knowledge and make people fight for their rights. And next slide, please. The education is also crucial in climate activism, or even wider, political activism. The story behind my climate activism isn't long. It started last year before elections to the European Parliament. When I participated in mini-model European Union Simulation, which was part of a campaign called This Time I'm Voting. And I just wanted to try something new, and I got interested in it, so I decided to take a part. And there we were supposed to devise a line of reasoning on the particular matter, and then debate, and then carry out a legislative process, just like in the European Parliament. And in my opinion, it was a great idea that we were not representing ourselves, but all participants were divided into main political groups randomly, and we were supposed to present their standpoint. So our topic was energy union. And to prepare for the simulation, I started reading a lot about energy, European, Green Deal climate change, and so on. And it really changed my perspective, this whole project, because I realized that, firstly, I realized that the real change happens in politics, in national parliament, European institutions, and on the streets, where we as citizens protest and fight for our rights and visions, and by our voices, we have an impact on politicians' decisions. And secondly, I started considering that fighting climate change as one of the most important goals for my generation. And next slide, please. This experience was a reason for increasing my involvement in political activism. And right now, I actively participate in your climate strikes and protests in my city, for example, against breaking the fundamental human rights for equality, for rule of law. And before the elections to the Polish parliament, I got involved in election campaign, helping one of the Polish Green Party candidates. And at the end, I'd like to say that all actions and activists are really important and needed everywhere, but they are crucial in small cities. Because the smaller cities, the harder it is to take people to the streets, and the consequences are higher. So we need to be there, teach our neighbors, and show them that having an opinion and presenting it publicly is just the right thing to do. Thank you. Amazing. Thank you very much, Weronika. If you are listening to us right now and you have any questions, please use our social media. We won't have time to answer them, but if you have questions to our panelists, our speakers, our guests, invented young activists, use social media to post them, and we're going to ask them to answer your questions directly. And now to our next panelist, Nadya Wierzbicka, who is here with us in the studio. Nadya, would you like to share your perspective? Yeah, of course. So hello, everyone. My name is Nadya Wierzbicka. As you can see, I am a part of European Greens activist training, but not exclusively. I am also a member of campaign against homophobia, which is the widest queer organization in Poland. And recently I became involved in Women's Strike Consulting Group. And I decided to tell you about the first big project I was involved in, and it was about the resistance towards homophobia and hate speech. But let's start from the beginning. So in May, there was a presidential campaign in which current president competed to become re-elected, and as you know, he did. But in order to gain votes, he decided to take advantage of the homophobic attitudes among Poles. Lots of people in Poland are not acknowledged with LGBTQ plus communities, so it is easy for politicians to create some false beliefs about queer citizens. And so did the president, scaring the voters with LGBTQ plus people. And during one of his political agitations, he would say, we are being told that they are people, but it is just an ideology. So in some ways, the humanized part of Polish society to gain more votes. And mentioned words became viral quickly nationally and even internationally, so of course I heard them. To be honest, I wasn't really surprised, but it made me sad anyway, so I decided that I will do something about it. And I became a member of a campaign against homophobia, the wider queer group in Poland, as I mentioned. And my first task was to create a short movie clip for social media. And it was about the, as I said, resistance. Like many organizations in Poland and all across the world didn't really like the hate speech that the president made. So we made a list, but I thought that it is not enough. Like people won't really identify with organizations unless they are part of them. So I decided to extend the concept of the movie clip and I had three goals. And my first goal was to engage people in the process. My challenge was that I had no footage nor pictures of the protest that emerged after the words of the president, but I decided to change that weakness into advantage. So next slide please. I tried to include as many people from the community as possible. So I added the private footage from people that participated in the protest. And that way I had access to many records from events. I could engage many people and I also had many locations to show. And my second goal was to show the power of people because I knew that I was not the only one person that was like fed up with this negative stuff that politicians were talking about. So I tried to picture the, like the anger that emerged after those words. And I wanted to question the common stigma that portrays queer people as inferior ones because it is not easy for us, but we have to show a lot of strength every day. And I wanted to show that strength. And for me, it's simple word protests that emerged. So in the beginning of the clip, I confronted president's words that queer people are just an ideology with those actual people. And I put those words in proper contexts, showing LGBTQ plus community simply as humans, not ideology. So my goal was to restore the idea of humanity. And last but not the least, I wanted to show protests in small cities as equal to those in large agglomerations. And maybe the smaller ones were not as spectacular, but for me, they were much more moving because I think it is quite difficult to be a queer person from a small town which tends to be rather conservative. So it takes a lot of courage to go and protest in front of all the inhabitants that can easily recognize you and make you a subject of critique. And I wanted to show our appreciation of those actions and focus on them as well because I think it is important to include also small agglomerations in the process of big change. And at the end we released the movie clip on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and people liked it. And it was my first experience with activism in such a large scale, and that's all, thank you. Thank you very much. And now let's proceed to the next speaker who is Veronica Dombrovich, Veronica, can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you. The floor is yours. So, okay, welcome everyone. It's a great honor to be able to host European Green Panel amongst other wonderful activists. My name is Veronica Dombrovich and I am currently 21 years old student. Apprentaining to proper activists, I am an avid member of the Left Wing Young Organization, Derazem and Derazem Party, as well as other climate animal and human rights organizations. Though my biggest interest has always been certain around space and how studying the universe influences the human perception of one service and society. The geocentric theory of the universe claims that the Earth is the center of the universe and other objects such as the sun, moon and individual planets in the solar system go around it. As humankind, we have always been asserting our superiority over other entities, which is proven in this theory that places the human as the center of the universe, disregarding other beings. Next slide, please. The occurrence that first made me realize how crucial is to handle the work with kind gloves, using empathy and research, rather than treating it like a playground was the slaughterhouse vigil in Kudno, where up to 10,000 pigs lost their lives on a daily basis. In Poland and all around the world, groups of activists organize it, vigilante demonstration. The animal safe movement group coordinates such activists until earlier in the Kudno slaughterhouse, the third biggest abattoir in Europe. The vigilante is about accompanying animals in their last moments. Activists are training to feed water to animals depending on their condition on recension given by a fair man. But amongst other things, it's primary about making a statesman, convening in the message, proving people are aware of the double morality of transporting living creatures and slaughtering them from the deletion of taste, which were unfortunate information, a wage of the situation. The world is so fast and busy that we don't have the time and company to evolve every aspect of our lives. Next slide, please. When I think about how much pain we inflict on incompetent, anxious, gracious, and about the impact of meat on the emission of the greenhouses, gases into the atmosphere, this is, I think this is not how should be the conception of the highly-development civilization. And the social concepts of eating meat of specific species of animals makes it hard to see the dissonance between our love for empathy and sensitivity and eating poor chop. Moreover, our mentality of being more species, the more significant, the more privileged, the more valid. And we think we deserve comfort at whatever cost, even if those of animals lost their lives and go through agonistic pain. The issues of the climate itself does not defeat more from the reasons why people eat the flesh of some animals, while raising other as family members. Of course, those with the highest capital people who run corporation without any financial consequences causes changes that the purse will have to pay. The gradual as people continue to over-explain change resources and emit greenhouse gases, distributing the gas balances of the atmosphere in which we are able to exist. What cause or drive to serve this trap is, in my opinion, selfish way of thinking. Being invited that we are the chosen species of life means something in the face of cosmos. This is, I think, I can tell. There so, thank you very much, and there's the next speaker. Amazing, thank you very much. OK, so now we go to the next speaker, Bartosz Marzec. Bartosz, are you with us? Yes, I'm with you with us. OK, you may proceed. So hello, everyone. I'm really, really happy to be here and share with you my experiences with activism. What made me to act and demand actions for climate from our government? It was the moment when Andrzej Duda, president of Poland during COP24 in Katowice in his opening speech, said that there was no contradiction between burning coal and climate protection and that Poland had no intention to phase out coal, claiming incorrectly that it has 200 years of coal reserves. It was so unbelievable that someone like head of country said that during climate summit. Crucial event after which I could call myself as an activist took place in my town, Lubartów, when Polish president arrived to start his presidential campaign before elections. Then I showed up with a banner, Save Climate, Save People. You can see a photo on the left side in the presentation. When president saw me, said that he invited young people to plant trees. That was so ridiculous. Of course, that trees are important, but president who is able to change climate policy invite young people to plant trees. And that's one greenwashing from his side. The EU has to set ambitious climate goals and demand climate neutrality from all member states. On the right, photo is made with main candidate position to president. In my banner was written Poland without coal by 2030. She said that there were no analyzes which confirm that Poland could be without coal by 2030. Then I gave her one of analysis from Instruct and she was a bit confused. This is proof that politicians don't care about climate. And they say a lot, but do nothing. Next slide, please. Human rights are close to me because I live in the LGBT free zone. LGBT free zones are one third of Poland. And one third of Poland is also free zone from my friends. One of main conservatives politicians said that whole Poland should be LGBT free zone. I'm sad when I think that in the 21st century in center of the Europe, a country which is in the EU, we have to fight for human rights. Polish president in June said that LGBT is not people. It's an ideology. It was then communism, that scandal. And we need support from the EU in fighting for human rights and for climate, of course. Next slide, please. And activism in other way. I'm one of the 32 advisors to the Polish minister of climate and environment. We advise on legislation and give opinions on the ministries, projects on the climate and environment. One form of activism is also cooperation with politicians to try to change something is our environment. Moreover, local actions are so important, for example, trust challenge or something like that. And as I told before, we need to support from EU to fight for human rights and for climate because alone it's hard to fight in Poland because government is so ridiculous. Thanks for listening to me. Thank you. Thank you, Bartosz. I think we all agree that we need support from European Union and actually all the support we can get to fight for our causes. And now let's give the floor to Kuba Bilski. Hello. Yeah. So I will start my presentation and I will share with you the story of how I became an activist. Even though my activism didn't really start until recently, from when I was really young, I had one value that was my biggest motivator and that is large-scale international cooperation. I'm one of the people who grew up in Poland seeing how it changed and developed and improved under the influence of joint the EU. And it really inspired me with hope to see that countries which used to fight for resources, for land, for the pittiest of things can now all cooperate for a common goal. And this imputed me with hope that we can maybe achieve this globally. That maybe one day we could all cooperate as one big block if this European project will work. But I didn't feel as if Poland really matched my values. So I plan to leave Poland to go to a country which is more progressive. And I wanted to start out by studying in England. And that really, next slide please, that really let me test my values. Because going to the UK, I was allowed to study on the same exact rights that any UK citizen would because of the EU regulation. And I got the experience of living there and studying for three and a half years. And I'll be honest, not even for a day, I felt like I was a foreigner. I didn't fit in perfectly, but about on the same level I would in Poland. I felt treated equally. And it felt like I was in a different region of the same country, not in a completely different place. But there were some stark differences. Next slide please. The discourse around global warming and around social progressive issues was astonishingly different. The UK isn't perfect, but I could see in comparison how much difference there was between this dialogue and that it's possible to achieve that, that it's possible to get to a place where even in a conservative region, you can rarely hear anyone say that climate change global warming isn't real. So seeing that and seeing that Poland was becoming the biggest stopping force of any climate change action done by the EU, I felt like I needed to do something. I felt like in order for the EU to work, the progressive, the more aware people can't just keep leaving the country and go to other ones which are more progressive. We need to gain the knowledge and come back and try and do as much as we can to raise awareness and help our country move in the right direction. So I joined the Airstrike, I joined the Greens and I joined Extinction Rebellion and I helped and I'm still actively working in all those groups to try and bring up on awareness and change. The two of my favorite events that we ever organized, as you can see our pictures from them right there, one is the biggest climate march strike that we had in Łódź and the second one with Extinction Rebellion is climate execution which we organized and it really got some really interesting results and reactions from people. But with every one of the events, I felt even more energy and enthusiasm. I didn't feel like I was burning out. I felt like with every single action that we do, I feel more energized to help them to do, but it wasn't because of the effect. I personally couldn't see any effect of the events that we did. I couldn't see things change due to our actions. Things have definitely changed in Poland, but that's not, has never been something that drove me. Next slide, please. To me, okay. To me, what was, please, to me, what was really, okay, it was really important about those events. It seems like we lost that one slide here. It's the skills, the information, the abilities and the opportunities that you get from being an activist, being in an activist group. And most importantly is the communities, the friendships and everything that you have the pleasure of building while being in such an activist group. It's a safe space for ideas, for sharing how to bring upon change and to try and work together on all these projects to try and achieve this common goal. And it was really an amazing experience that I do try and share with all of my peers because the more activists might do it, the more motivated I get to do it. And what's the most important to me and what I try and convey is that if all of the progressive people leave Poland, as it is easy to do so because you do really feel like you don't fit in, then all the people that will stay will be the conservative ones, will be the people who don't want to bring Poland more in line progressively and on climate to the level of Europe. So we will be the people who are stopping and slowing that down. Thank you. Thank you very much for your inspiring speech. If you have any questions to our panelists, please use social media. As Arthur mentioned, we are very tight on time schedule, so we will follow up on YouTube, Facebook and you can catch up with our participants there. Thanks again to all the participants who prepared the presentations. I think they are a true inspiration and some hope for us in these difficult times. Please stay with us. The next panel is dedicated to agriculture and farm to fork strategy. So thank you very much and enjoy the next panel. Thank you very much. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. Fourth panel of our seminar, Civil Society in Action, a side event of the 32nd Council of the European Green Party. This time we will speak about food and agriculture. The title is The Hard Path from Fark to Fork. Please can you show us the short video? Trying to create a new cup, more fair, more just. It's not possible, but it's possible. Thank you very much. Our guests are partners. Today, this panel is the Coalition of the Earth. And our guests are in the studio, Justyna Zwolińska, an expert for the Rolningstwa and the Food System. And the coordinator for the Rolningstwa and the Earth Coalition. Welcome. Good afternoon. On my other side, also in the studio Dorota Metera, expert for the Rolningstwa and the Rolningstwa Ecological Forum. Members of the IEFAM and the Ministry of Rolningstwa and the GMO. Good afternoon. And online, on the line, we have Marcina Galickiego. GMO, sorry for having, I was speaking on the wrong channel, sorry. Marcina Galickiego, economist for the creator of Food Rengen and also a member of the Living Earth Coalition. And finally, Agnieszka Makowska, who is an agric, who is a farmer and coordinator at Living Earth Coalition. At first, a question to Justyna Zwolińska. What are the video that we saw at the very beginning? Does it illustrate well the challenges that you are thinking about for which you created Living Earth Coalition? I think they are challenges that were illustrated really well. And they are not only my challenges, but they are challenges to the majority of consumers and citizens, especially those who are aware that if we destroy this economic foundation of farming, if we destroy the resources of water, soil, if we pollute the earth and we treat agriculture just as any other sector of the economy focusing on quick profits. So focusing on the economic dimension without bearing in mind that it's an area that gives us life. That's also a place where people live and work in rural areas. Then, as the oldest person from the video said, there is no future unless we have systemic changes, there is no future. So we should stop talking about farming or agricultural policy, but we should start talking about food policy. So one where we automatically combine farming as the part that gives us food and not just as an area that's supposed to give us as much profit as possible without taking care of consumers' interests, without taking care about the environment or climate. And the thing that's the most difficult now is common agricultural policy in the years 2021, 2027 and how we arranged it. There are political changes coming and we are not going to take the decisions only in Brussels. The member states are getting a lot of influence. So through their strategic goals, they can decide what's going to happen in agriculture. So in each country, we are in touch with people from good food to good farming platform. And the biggest problem is for your own ministry to become convinced that you should opt for measures and distribute funds in such a way so that as much money goes to farmers as possible. Farmers who really produce high quality food, those who are taking care of the environmental protection, nature protection, they are thinking about water resources, protecting the soil. So apart from delivering a product which can be bought in a store, they also deliver a lot of common goods that we are taking advantage of. And it's more difficult to express it in material terms, but there's no life without it, no life for farmers, consumers, or for our children. So the way we think about the agricultural policy, the way we think about its financing, and the way we involve the general public and how we involve the politicians, we don't want to have polluted food with life site. And we don't want to have food stemming from industrial production of animals. We don't want all that. And the question is whether someone is going to hear it, whether the authorities in Poland or in Brussels will hear it. Thank you so much. When it comes to the European Green Deal, one in the strategy from a field, from farm to fork, it is assumed that 25% of crops will be organic. And you've been dealing with organic farming for more than 30 years now on all levels, Dorota, at the fields, certification, national law, EU law. Do you think Poland could realize this ambitious goal? Poland has a very difficult task. There are countries which have already crossed this magical figure, 25%. In 2019, in Austria, 26% of crops were ecological, organic. Poland has to catch up. And the period of 10 years is not enough to make sure that in 2030, we accomplish 25%. So how many we have in Poland? More than 3%. So we are at the very end in Europe, even though our politicians are happy to boast how ecological country Poland is. I'm glad that at least it's declarative, but when it comes to measures and figures, things are much worse. But the EU gives freedom to its members, allowing them to arrive at its goal at their own pace. It's hard to expect that we jump from 3% to 25% over a decade. The European Union gives a task to the member states to investigate their needs and to strive at improving the whole supply chain in the system of organic production. So we really have a lot to do here. It is the first time that the European Commission has set a goal, for which I've been waiting for so many years, and I hope Poland will do something about it to improve the situation. So there are going to be a lot of instruments for this objective. One of them is a European Action Plan for organic farming. And all member states will have to adopt such programs. And we want this Polish plan to help us strive at this high goal. And the second instrument, aid instrument, will involve funds for organic farmers. That organic farmers in Poland have been getting from 2004 onwards from the moment of joining the EU before we had such subsidies, but they were really low. And there are other instruments from the program for the development of rural areas that will help organic farmers. We also need consumer awareness, the motion of organic products and measures aimed at better access of organic products in schools, in kindergartens, just like in other countries. This is a very good market for a lot of producers, organic producers. New regulation on organic production to enter into force in 2022, on the 1st of January, it was said to be a way to improve the credibility of control and certification system when it comes to enablers. Well, it's not as good as we would have expected, but it's actually a new era in the control of organic farming. It will probably increase trust of consumers to those products. It will be helpful in accomplishing this goal. I do believe that Poland will improve its situation, that we will join countries that have for years been supporting organic farming. The budget is the problem or the household budget. Now the value of organic products is estimated to be more than a billion zlotys. That's about six euros per capita, depending on the estimates. We are far behind Switzerland or Germany or Denmark, where it's more than 200 euros per capita. It's really unattainable in Poland, but it's all of us convinced two or three people to buy organic. The number of organic consumers and the demand for those products will increase by 200% or 300% so all of us should do their best around them. So let me use this opportunity. I have 30 seconds left, so maybe you could tell us about the advantages of organic food as compared to conventional food. Maybe some part of the audience do not realize what the advantage is. Well, there is a clear description of what organic food is. This is all stipulated in EU law. And if you want to produce organic food, you are not allowed to use any artificial fertilizers. And it's all about prevention. There are biological methods we can use to protect your plants. And also you could use some viruses or bacteria to protect your plants. And when it comes to animal breeding, you need to care about the good conditions for the animals. They need good treatment and good food. And they need free space outside. And it's also very important to ensure good control mechanisms because all the organic producers are controlled every year. Like 100% of the organic producers are controlled every year. And when it comes to conventional producers, it's just a tiny percentage that is actually controlled so you can trust organic producers. Well, I think that Marcin Garnicki can confirm that we can trust organic farmers. Dorota Metera was talking about this problem that Polish people are not aware of the difference between conventional and organic agriculture. You established this food rent-gain program together with your wife that shows this difference from the perspective of the consumers. Could you please present to us what you've been able to establish in recent years? So we analyze food in terms of what substances they contain. But before I start talking about this, let me invite you, encourage you to think about food. And there is a butterfly effect. I'm sure you're familiar with this term. So if you have a butterfly, it is moving its wings. And by doing so, it can cause a storm, even a sand storm in other parts of the world. That's the theory, so much for the theory. But in terms of what is happening around us and what kind of challenge we are facing, let's think together where this butterfly, moving its wings, is located, or maybe a bunch of butterflies causing all these effects. So what is this challenge? Well, different kinds of illness. Right now we have the pandemic, COVID-19. And there is cancer and other types of illness. And there are superb bacteria, for example, that human bodies cannot resist. And finally, there are species which are just dying out. So what's the reason behind this? Where is this butterfly causing all these negative developments? And my conclusion would be that it's us, the humankind, breaking about this effect. And we do this by eating what we eat. When you are eating, have you ever thought about the consequences of what you are doing? So if you have something on your table, where was that produced? Have you ever thought about this? Have you ever thought about the consequences? The impact of that food on your health and the environment? So these are the questions we've been asking ourselves. I mean, me and my wife. And that's how we came up with the idea of analyzing food in terms of what kind of bad substances it contains. And I mean, food that is available at stores. So we want to increase the awareness among consumers. But this awareness of consumers is not enough. However, why? Because you need information. If you are just aware of what is going on, you will end up frustrated. And you need more information to be able to cope with that frustration and find alternatives. So what we are doing right now, we just, well, we looked at cereals, at growths. And now we want to also examine flour. And what have we established in all these products that we examined? Well, when it comes to cereals, we found a lot of sugar. And there were also examples of cereals where we did not find sugar. But we found the so-called pesticide cocktails. And there was even one product in which we found 12 different pesticides. And if you have such a pesticide cocktail, well, it has impact on your bodies. We do not know exactly what that impact is. Because scientists are not able to create any models that would show the impact of those pesticides. But let's think about it. If there is no research that confirms that these substances causes, that these substances cause damage, does that mean that they are not dangerous at all? Well, I'm not sure. But let's think about it. I think even if there is no research confirming that these substances can cause damage, it still does not mean that, for sure, they do not. We also examined buckwheat or millet. And we found products with a lot of glyphoside. And the maximum residual levels were exceeded greatly. And we published reports. And those reports led to a public debate on these topics. And I'm very happy with this. And now referring to what Dorota said, well, our reports showed clearly that organic food is better. And we also produced a report about beer and what was established. It turned out we did not establish any negative substances in beer. We examined 18 different brands. And there was just one that contained some glyphoside. However, we examined not just glyphoside, but also hundreds of other substances. And the results were very good. And we were surprised. And we started thinking, how is this even possible? In the previous analysis, we found all these substances. And in the case of beer, we did not. And we asked the beer sector. And we were told that the beer sector, the breweries, changed their behavior. Because the suppliers were forced to deal with this problem. So this awareness was there. And that's why the breweries fixed this problem. And we did not find any negative substances in beer. So you can see that we can be very effective. And sometimes it's good to move your wings when you are even a small butterfly, because you can actually change a whole sector. And now we are going to produce a report on Onflower. And we'll see whether we are wrong or right. And whoever is interested in what we are doing, please follow us. This report on Flower is coming soon. So we are trying to set this snowball in motion. We've joined the Living Earth Coalition. And based on our analysis, a petition has been drafted, a petition that is addressed to the prime minister. And we want a decrease in the use of glyphosate. And I would like to encourage you to take action. So this is really important. And that's what the young people were talking about in the previous panel. And whoever is interested, please visit our website or contact me in person. We'll be happy to answer your questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, indeed, you are playing a very important role. And there are no other organizations that would be doing such research that would examine products available in stores. And we know this is a serious problem in Poland because there are a lot of products that contain pesticides. And it is part of this from farm to fork strategy. And many, many farmers in Poland are alone because they have never been taught how to cultivate their land without pesticides. And that's why they are so worried. But this is possible. They just need to be taught how to do this. And this can also generate profits. So it's not like that that you cannot generate a significant profit if you cultivate your land in an organic way. Now, the next speaker, a coordinator of the Living Earth Coalition. Could you please tell us, Agnieszko, who you cooperate with? You're also an organic farmer yourself. So what would be your diagnosis? What do the farmers need for this transition? We need so much to take place. Hello. Well, our coalition has been cooperated with the European platform Good Food Good Farming from the very beginning. It is a platform of sister organizations from all over Europe. And indeed, our cooperation is very close. We started with a common organization of action days in October. So the coalition was implementing that project here in Poland. And we tried to coordinate different events related to organic farming. And this year, our cooperation has been strengthened and broadened. Because for some months, together with other organizations, we've been running a campaign, a social campaign. In May, there was a campaign that went for several months addressing the members of the European Parliament. And we wanted to get this message across to them so that they can prepare for their involvement in designing this new common agricultural policy, so that they see that the times have changed, that we are now facing different challenges. And that's why our agriculture should change, too. And now, the recent weeks, where we had a number of meetings in the European Parliament, the European Council, and the European Commission, and we were working on those. And we're trying to influence the European leaders and encourage them to consider the voice of the civil society. It's millions of Europeans who demand changes to the common agricultural policy. And as Justina was saying, it's actually not related not just to agriculture as such, but to food itself. And it is crucial in Poland we are doing some advocacy work. And it's also very important that we've seen this integration of different movements and organizations of civil society from different European countries. And that has made our voice stronger and more focused. And now the other part of your question, where I am an organic farmer, but a very small one, so I do have some land, but it's really not a lot. And I think that for sure it is very important to educate people. And in Poland, we have a problem with this. And you can see this problem everywhere at schools, because there is not enough education on organic farming, and there is also a problem when it comes to educating the farmers themselves. Because we do not have schools for farmers that would be teaching about organic agriculture. And I think it's very important that we have that would be teaching about organic agriculture. This is not covered in the curriculum at all. So there are many, many farmers who think that they might switch to organic agriculture, but they're very afraid of it because they just do not have enough knowledge. And also, this seems unattainable. And this can all be changed. You just need to provide them with the education they need. So it's important to change the education system at general schools and at schools educating farmers. And there are also farmers that are supported by the local agricultural centers providing advice and training, but it's not enough. So there are really few centers all over Poland that are well-prepared to give farmers the support they need when switching to organic farming. And they need conferences, they need seminars, they need training sessions, workshops. And I think that in the case of Poland, we have this sphere among farmers. They are afraid of switching to organic agriculture because our system does not make the life of organic farmers easy when you think about the whole system of buying crops from organic farmers. It's not well-developed. It's not well-organized. And there are many farmers who are not able to sell the organic food they produce as organic food. We have good retailers. But it's not the case with the whole sale. And there are also many regulations in place which make the life of organic farmers quite difficult in Poland. Thank you so much. I'd like to ask one question to you, Stena. Not so long ago, we issued a water expert document, an expert report. Your coalition has been existing for two years now. Apart from advocacy, you're also educating, and you issued under the second Food Sovereignty Act, which is the second Food Sovereignty Act. We issued under the second Food Sovereignty Forum co-organized with Lenin Polska. We issued a brochure, quite extensive one, Politics on the Plate, and now a very big water report about water in farming. Could you comment on that? Yes, indeed, more than half a year ago, at the initiative of Living Earth Coalition, we were working on a report called Water in Farming. It encompasses 200 pages. It's quite a solid document containing both political recommendations as well as a description of the current state of affairs. It's also saying what farmers can do, what sort of practices they can implement to protect water resources, to save them. So we've done a review, starting with practical issues through to political and legal issues, also commenting on the significance of water in nature, commenting on climate changes. So it's a very comprehensive document. We have very good reviews, and several scientists have commented that this was a very good guidebook, especially for officials and politicians to go in this direction, taking care of protecting of water resources in Poland and to protect water in farming. Because we've been facing this huge problem. We have an ongoing agricultural drought. Estimates have been saying that next year, it might be a problem of hydrological drought in Poland. So unless, and I'm speaking bluntly, we, unless we stop this stupid management of water without saving water resources, and instead, using more and more artificial fertilizers, pesticides, that result in the fact that soil doesn't retain water, interfering with river courses, digging new drenches, leading water out. It's just as if we were cutting the branch of a tree on which we are sitting. We don't want to be in a situation without water, without farming, without food, and instead, with serious political conflicts, crying and search for imported water. I think it's high time to take advantage of our expert report plus to more expert reports to change things. I do encourage the Ministry of Agriculture to take immediate legislative measures. I encourage all Polish politicians to change the water law and adopt a strategy for the protection of water in farming. Without it, agriculture will not survive. Yes, we're commenting on the same thing as under the previous channel. We were talking about catchment management. It's not enough to talk about just a river, but about the whole catchment. And that's the overlapping point. Water management, and we need to change the approach of the authorities to this topic. It's a problem that has to be solved nationally and at the EU level. We need to debate it because the water framework directive is, of course, a good regulation, but it's not sufficient. So by all means, we need to work on that. Now I wanted to ask you one question. We have a lot of listeners, among others, participants of the 32nd Council, European Green Party Council, participants from all over Europe. What sort of message do you want to send to them? Let's start with Dorota. Well, like I said, we are at a very important moment for all member states. We're preparing national strategic plans for the future common agricultural policy that will shape farmers' behaviors and the methods of their work. And it will support them financially for these methods. And those who have impact on the decision of governments by means of consultations, they should reach out to the authorities in their countries to make sure that the provisions about organic farming are positive and to make sure that we can support ecologically friendly farming, farming that's friendly for nature and people, people to support the local producers. Thank you. Martin Galicki, what would you say to the participants of the European Green Party Council from 42 countries in the European Union? We have this policy from farm to fork, but we are trying to promote this idea from fork to farm. We're encouraging everyone to raise awareness among consumers because you need to work both ways. On the one hand, raise awareness among farmers, change farming towards more environmentally friendly and people friendly. And on the other hand, we need to raise awareness among consumers because we have this poor farmer who is trying to produce and sell his produce. What can he do if there's no demand for his produce, even though he's putting so much effort? How is he supposed to sell it? So awareness when consumers are aware that only good food, nutritious food, is people friendly and environment friendly. So this is the way we can use to arrive at good solutions. So we need to work both ways. Thank you. Agnieszka Makowska, what sort of message would you send? I can't hear you. Agnieszka, I can't hear anything. I can't hear anything. I can't hear anything. I can't hear anything. Our panelists can't hear us. Our panelists can't hear us. No, I hear. No, I hear. So what sort of message would you send? Agnieszka? To the participants of the 32nd European Green Party Council. My dream is to have a debate, a pan-european debate, but most of all a Polish debate about the model of farming, that it's high time to change this model, leave the systems that support those short term approaches, focusing on short term gains, and start working out new regulations, new law that will guide us towards farming that will contribute to environmental protection and climate protection. Farming that will be able to cope with the challenges ahead of us. It's not like it's a distant future. It's already happening. It's the present. So a model of farming that will let us produce our food and ensure food safety. But that will be adapted to the challenges that lie ahead of us. Well, I may be giving a message mainly to the Polish citizens, but actually it's a message for whole Europe underlying that in Poland we need to start this public debate about this. Thank you so much. You have the last minute. Very quickly, I have a list of five things for all politicians. Don't let farmers to be divided. When we, because we say we have a Polish Dutch or Czech farmer, as a result common policy is not common. Don't let agro industry speak on behalf of farmers because they don't have a common goal. Make sure that farmers, those farmers, get subsidies that take care of the environment, produce good food, and take care of animal welfare. Make sure that we are not a continent that intensively manufactures animal based on monoculture with GMOs and glyphosate. Thank you so much, and now we invite you to the next panel. We have a 10 minutes break, and in 10 minutes we will meet Professor Magdalena Sheroda and we will speak about women rights. 10 minutes break. Welcome to everyone. See again at the Conference Civil Society in Action, organized by the Green European Foundation and the Polish Green Foundation Strefa Geleni. This time we will speak about women rights. And our partner is the Congress of Women. Please show us the video. It's the wrong video. Please show us the other one. It should be the video about the Congress of Women. It's fantastic that we meet, as usual, what we do. We start the 11th Congress of Women. First of all, I would like to thank you, Professor Magdalena Sheroda. Absolutely, this year's Congress of Women is a priority for us. I would like to invite our regular about the action that connects and is above the party. It is unheard of, unheard of by you. Thank you. Do we have Professor Sheroda with us? Is she online? Yes, I'm here. So, hello Magda, let me introduce you first. Professor Magdalena Sheroda. And she's co-founder of the Congress of Women. She's a Polish politician and philosopher. And she's also a columnist of the Gazeta Webocha and she was in the 80s, she was active in the Solidarnoš movement. And after 1989, she would be involved in politics until 2004 when she was appointed by Prime Minister Marek Belka as the government's plenipotentiary for the equal status of women and men. She has been advocating the separation of state and the church, LGBT rights and more liberal abortion law. She's also known for her consistently anti-war stance of on foreign policy, but I would add also for defending animal rights. Magda, welcome to our interview. I'm very happy that we can talk today. We've known each other for such a long time. I don't remember a time when I didn't know you. And for such a long time, we've been fighting for women's rights. In 2004, when Poland was joining the European Union, well, it was also the time when our party started its activities and you became the plenipotentiary of the Polish government for gender equality. And sometime later with Henryka Borchnicz, you came up with the idea of the Congress of Women. So you were the founding mothers of that Congress. What was this Congress supposed to be about? What kind of challenges did you want to tackle? I'm very glad to be here. So hello to everyone on such an important day for the green activists. So let me tell you about the reasons behind organizing the Congress of Women. We were so angry. We were so frustrated back at that time. We were celebrating the 20th anniversary of the political transformation. And there were so many lectures, so many seminars organized at that time. And all the speakers were men at that time. And we were so angry. And Henryka Borchnicz had the same experience. She's the leader of an association of Polish enterprises. And she was also shocked that there were so few female speakers, so few female panelists. And all those events were being organized at that time to celebrate this anniversary of 20 years of the Polish transformation. Even though the Polish women contributed so much to the Polish economy. After the transition, many men were depressed. They were not able to find jobs. And during that time, it was women who established new businesses, small businesses. And when we look at the statistics, we can see that so many small and medium-sized enterprises were founded by women at that time. And it had been my experience already in 1989 that the development of democracy in Poland was somehow related to the process of de-feminization. So Poland was entering this era of democracy. And we got the free market. And at the same time, the women were losing their rights. In 1993, Polish women were deprived of the right to adoption. So the reproductive rights of Polish women were questioned. One of the first decisions of the democratic government in the 90s right after the transition was a decision to close baker centers and kindergarten. The church in Poland started advocating for women to get back to the traditional roles in the society. And since that time, even though the majority of people were happy with the democratic developments in Poland, there were some women who saw that these changes did not bring any progress in terms of the status of women, in terms of women's rights. To the contrary, these rights were decreased. And it doesn't matter whether there was Mazowiecki or the SLD government or the left wing government or the right wing government. All those politicians thought that the women would cope somehow. There was the perspective. We can do whatever we want. We do not need to pay women for raising their children, even children with disabilities, because the women will cope somehow. That was the general perspective. And in 2004, when Poland was joining the European Union, there was a big event. And there was a lot of enthusiasm. And at the very same time, women were fighting for the reproductive rights. However, at that time, the Polish prime ministers said something like that, just wait. Please, take some time. We need to enter the European Union. We need to focus on our transition. And later, there will be time to deal with women's rights. And finally, there was a time when Poland had reached the peak of the democratization of our society. And the women's rights were still neglected. Sometimes, there were offered some benefits. There were some charities instead of proper social policy. And Enrica Bohniasz and me, we just said, we've had enough. That's it. Polish women, that's more than half of the power society, they represent the small and medium-sized businesses. Women are raising children without any support from the state or from the husbands. So we need to look after ourselves. We need to help one another. We need to take care of one another. And we came up with this idea of the Congress of Women as a social movement integrating different communities. And this happened. It was the first time something like that had happened. Because me, look at me, I was a professor at the University of Warsaw. But there were also women who were students. And there were women who were running their own businesses. There were actresses. There were feminists among us. So really different communities. And it was really nice that this slogan, this concept of organizing this Congress of Women, just to sum up what we had achieved since the transition, political and economic transition in Poland, to take the floor, to speak up, to say clearly that women's rights are not just a topic for some NGOs. This is something that concerns all the women in Poland. So that's how the Congress was organized for the first time. And let me say one important thing. Nowadays, we have these strikes of women. And let me stress that the Congress would not have been organized if it had not been for so many different organizations like the Women's Party of Manoala Gatkowska. So it was an initiative that preceded our Congress of Women. And it was a party with a great political program. But still, it was ignored because of how patriarchal our society is. And now we are very, very satisfied. Because when the reproductive rights were decreased in the 90s under the influence of the Catholic Church and the government, there were activists going on strike, taking it to the streets. But there were not many, maybe some 15, maybe 50, up to 100. That was the maximum right now, back at that time in the 90s. And now, look at the crowds in the street. So it was just as a seed back at that time. And now we can see the result of having planted that seed at the beginning of the 90s. So when we look how women have been organized, we had the so-called manifesto. We had the Women's Party. Then we had the Congress of Women. And based on that, this national strike was organized, which is now about to organize a real revolution in Poland. However, please explain how it happened that the Congress of Poland was actually moving to other countries all over Europe, too. So it was actually spread all over Europe. Well, it was a simple development. Polish people migrate a lot for different reasons all over Europe and all over the world. And when our Congress of Women was organized, we had people from France, from Belgium, from Germany, from Vienna, and other cities and countries all over the world. And those people approached us and said that they would like to participate in our initiative. However, the Congress was supposed to have different locations. We wanted to be like a fountain. We wanted to be present everywhere. We did not want to have just one single location in Warsaw. We did not want that Congress to be a Warsaw initiative. We wanted to be present in the regions. And that's why we had all those plenipotentiaries of the Congress of Women who started their activities first in the different voivodeships in Poland and then also in the so-called Poland. So on the local levels. And we wanted those women to be there, to be able to address the local problems and also to show solidarity, to bond with the local women. And that's how the initiative was spreading all over Poland. And there were also girls and women who lived abroad. And they joined us. And they were following what was going on in Poland. And they are still following this. And they said, well, we want to organize our Congresses of Women where we live. And we want this exchange of information and contacts to be as intensive as possible. So they wanted to stay in touch with the country of origin. And they also had the specific problems, the specific problems of the Polish communities living abroad in a different civilizational context as compared to what we have in Poland, so in Belgium or in Vienna and in other countries. We would have events addressing the local problems. So Polish people living abroad. But there were also initiatives supporting what we were doing in Poland in order to increase solidarity. And this is still happening. I think tomorrow I will make a video for the Congress of Women in Brussels. It's going to be organized online, unfortunately. That's all we can do right now. Because it used to be a big event in Brussels and the local authorities were involved and the members of the European Parliament. So it was really a big event. And it's very interesting to see that there are many differences between Polish people living abroad in different countries, depending on the specific nature of a given region. So what we are doing in Poland, well, there are differences between different regions in Poland and there are also differences between our events organized in different countries. And every year we invite women from countries where women are trying to organize similar initiatives. But sometimes they're not able to do so, like countries like Belarus or Azerbaijan. We even had a delegation from Saudi Arabia, for example, one year. And there was always someone from Ukraine and from Russia. So right now it's a very international initiative. And I think it's also sad because the problems that women have turn out to be similar all over the world when it comes to violence or sexual abuse and women's rights not being respected and women tend to have a more difficult situation in terms of being able to make a career and also in terms of how democratic the governments are in the countries where all these women are located. I've already mentioned several topics and I participated in a Brussels Congress last year. Together with Danuta Hivner we had the pleasure of participating on a panel in the European Parliament. We were talking about climate changes and politics in this regard. And now two questions came to my mind. Danuta Hivner is an MEP. He's also a prime minister in the shadow cabinet at the Congress of Women. And the question is why did you find a shadow cabinet? And since back then we were talking about climate changes. This goes to show that those purely, apart from purely feminist issues that the Congress keeps dealing with slowly but surely the thematic area has been broadening. There are a lot of ecological topics, of course, but climate changes and ecology are also present at the Congress of Women. And so this Congress has been spreading both geographically as well as thematically. Yes, by all means, everything related to women relates to us all. So in the vast majority, women have been taking care of the environment, have been taking care of the right nutrition, nature. They are dealing with cooking, gardening. They're closer to nature, at least in theory. Eco-feminism seems to be only natural. Women have this more holistic approach to the world and not patriarchal that divides our life and our body and our reality into specialized pieces that do not necessarily match. So this was only natural, but I have to admit one thing. I wasn't really aware of the fact that when at the beginning of 2000 and a little later, we were dealing with women's issues, environmental issues weren't as visible and they weren't as present. We were fighting for a healthy energy and that was with us from the very beginning. But when politicians, patriarchal politicians started to damage this country in the name of profits, damaged the country because Poland is being damaged. And I'm saying this not only on the basis of data, but also on the basis of my own observations. I'm in the Mazurian Lake area in Boracki Forest where trees are cut really dramatically. In the Congress, we've been always fighting against killing animals, hunting for animals. We've been debating about animal rights at the Congress. But at a certain point in time, this topic became priority. It became a global priority also at our Congress. And probably it will stay like that. The Congress appointed two bodies. One was the Cabinet of Shadows that met with the prime minister of the government. Back then it was Donald Tusk and he benefited a lot and we were just formulating our postulates in different areas, health, education, culture, energy, environmental protection, and multiple others. But the Congress also set up another organ of which we are very proud, Academy of the Congress of Women, which involved summer courses, which were very intensive, non-stereotypical, involving different people, different famous personalities. I'm not going to talk about the trainings, but the outcome is that a vast majority of women fighting in the parliament, fighting for democracy and women's rights, they graduated this summer Academy of the Congress of Women. You can say that they could create a club of the Congress of Women at the parliament. And believe me, they would be top parliamentarians, most involved and engaged in the rights of women and in the world, in the green world. Coming back to the issue of violence against women and reproductive rights, I wanted to ask you because the European Parliament voted by a vast majority of votes a resolution to support Polish women as regards women's rights in Poland. Does this resolution matter at all? What's your take? It has a huge significance. Politics, it's not just about facts, but also about symbols, gestures, values, postulates. And let me say that the Congress of Women several days ago submitted a letter to all parliamentarians and to the European Commission to make sure that women's productive rights are adopted as human rights. We do not support or we do not agree to national separatism unless those issues are treated as universal rights, they may become suspended as they were suspended in Poland. The Constitutional Tribunal issued a decision which is horrific. It sentences women to delivering sick children. It sentences women to tortures which in our civilized world have long been banned. So when it comes to reproductive rights of women and health, unless they are treated as fundamental human rights, then on authoritarian government can appear in any country and say that these things are insignificant. To our appeal, just as the resolution of the European Parliament hasn't gone to any legal or practical meaning, but the European Union wasn't founded overnight. It was founded based on desires and dreams about working together for human rights, for the community peace, and so on and so forth. So I think it can bring some outcomes. I think it's inadmissible in 21st century for women not to have the right to decide about being a mother. So if the European Union has been pointing out the issues of rule of law, then really the observance of reproductive rights, rights of women to autonomy, and to take own decisions about one's own body and motherhood, I think these are fundamental issues. And the outcomes that the resolution will bring and the letter will bring hard to say. But it's a very important voice with regard to the future of Europe in general. Thank you very much. Professor Manitana Srodam was our guest. The last guest of our today's seminar, Civil Society in Action. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much. Thank you to all the organizers. Thank you to the Green European Foundation for organizing and helping us organize this meeting. Thank you to BACMFD media communications, which was responsible for the technical support. And thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. We wish a very interesting, fruitful day tomorrow to the participants of 32nd European Green Party Council. We wish you great debates and wonderful speeches. For all the best and goodbye.