The authors have taken in their article topic about the Presidency of the Council of the European Union because of the impending coverage for Poland the presidency in that organ. Briefly, the three countries have been characterized that are part of the so- called Second Presidency Trio (Federation of the French Republic, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Czech Republic). The article in authors opinion is aimed at selecting the most important and the most useful aspects and determinants of good Presidency. Each of the countries that are part of this Trio has been subjected to detailed analysis in terms of goals and their final implementation. According to the authors of the text, for the Polish Presidency of the European Union the most will be to stick to the pre- designated purposes such as European Union enlargement to Croatia, or take action for the Eastern Partnership and the Region of the Baltic Sea.

Organizational preparations to the Polish Presidency are in progress at full steam. We began accomplishment of some tasks in 2007 starting from the analysis of experiences of other countries. In 2008, the Government Plenipotentiary for the Polish Presidency in the EU was appointed and in January 2009 the Polish government passed a comprehensive program of preparations to this historical event. Moreover in 2009 the financial resources for organization were provided, logistic preparations as well as trainings for Polish officials and first promo and information activities were undertaken. On July 1, 2011 Poland will assume the Presidency of the EU Council. It is not only a great challenge requiring strategic planning, full political and organizational activity on domestic and European level but also, what the representatives of the current government emphasize, a big opportunity for Poland in shaping the EU. According to them, the Presidency gives a possibility of a bigger and real influence on decisions taken in the EU. To the public opinion, they send messages that we will have an opportunity to present in the EU arena the priorities of Polish policy, emphasize the most important area, submit our own ideas and initiatives. Only few emphasize the fact that the Presidency is mainly the continuation of previous activities of the EU, providing its coherent functioning and guaranteeing the vote in the worldwide important matters.

The goal of the article it to present the role and meaning of the Western Balkans for the Polish foreign policy on the eve of the Polish Presidency in the EU. It is worth wondering if the fact of running the Presidency causes the change of character of the Polish foreign policy toward the region. The final answer will be possible after its end but some divagations are possible today, after the analysis of initial aims of the Polish Presidency. A question, if there is a necessity of enhancing the Polish activity and Polish presence in this part of Europe, is also legitimate. Experiences of the last years show that the interest of the Polish diplomacy in the region of the Western Balkans was limited and even if we showed some activity, it was the support for realization of the strategic aims of the foreign policy. The turning point in the Polish policy towards the Western Balkans could be a membership in the EU. Then there appeared a possibility of widening the field of influence of the Polish policy on the Balkans with the use of not only the own resources and political instruments but also the instruments at the EU disposal. It is worth considering whether it is not worth to use the moment to dynamize the Polish actions towards the region, especially when the region is very important for the EU and when the EU functions also as a promoter of stabilization, transformation and permanent development of the Western Balkans.

The European Union resembles only partly a community in the way it works. The internal differences between the member countries, disclosed in their full strength by the financial crisis, dilute the foundations of the European unity. Will the EU survive this bend, as it has in the past, or will it share the fate of other unsuccessful political and economical unions known from history? Considering the latter possibility remains, in any case, no longer just an exercise in political fiction. The fact that the Union is not uniform has been known since it ceased to be a safe, close union of six founding countries. Yet only the extension to the East in 2004, accepting simultaneously ten new countries, gave rise to a heated discussion, whether an Union of 27 countries can work jointly at all, taking into consideration the increasingly visible disproportions between its members. It also quickly turned out that the Lisbon Treaty is just partly an answer to this dilemma. An institutional reform did not protect the Union from new, huge shocks, which the financial crisis brought with it. These phenomena create a challenge for Poland, which will take up its half-year EU presidency in the middle of 2011. They will not always agree with the plans and means concerning the realization of the planned actions.

The article is the attempt of introduction to the subject of the Polish Presidency the security perceived through the functioning of the national and the European Union’s (EU) secret services. The secret service understood as the service of the intelligence and counterintelligence (of security), legally authorized. The subject issues are presented in the aspect of the approaching Polish Presidency. During this time Poland can and should contribute to the improvement of security measures of the continent through its commitment and contribution to the construction of the secret service of the EU. Europe, if it wants to be a taken into the account player on the political, economical and cultural arena, needs to integrate. Otherwise it will still be a marginal continent. This determinant should effectively defeat the national prejudices and phobias. It needs to be remembered that the current crisis, consistently called economical, has deeper sources and wider roots. It generally concerns the whole, so called western lifestyle which is determined by the political and economical society structure. The countries of the EU of the Central- Eastern area can bring many new and positive values integrating Europe and thereby limit the barriers in the aspect of building the measures of partnership and trust.