FORMER Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski received the honorary Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the University of Ss Cyril and Methodius in Trnava on December 1 in recognition of his contribution to the development of Slovak-Polish relations, active aid during Slovakia’s EU and NATO accession phase and for developing cooperation in the central European region.
The ceremony was attended by representatives of Slovak academia, foreign embassies, Speaker of Parliament Peter Pellegrini and other guests, the TASR newswire reported.
“We believe that the academic environment should decorate the life of this significant personality of not only Polish and central European but also of pan-European scope,” said Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences Peter Horváth, as quoted by TASR.
He also underlined that it was under Kwasniewski’s tenure as president that Poland passed a new constitution, a process in which Kwasniewski was intensively involved, and the country became a member of NATO and the EU.
“We teach our students that the foundations of Polish democracy were laid by the Solidarity movement but were definitely anchored during the era of A. Kwasniewski,” Horváth continued. “Furthermore, the integration process of Slovakia at the beginning of this millennium was successfully concluded partly thanks to support from figures from abroad, such as former Polish president A. Kwasniewski.”
Kwasniewski, who received the degree on his 60th birthday, also met with journalists. When asked whether it is an advantage for the president to conclude his or her mandate while still in a productive age, Kwasniewski replied that no definition exists of proper age for a politician to be at the height of power. He added that politics represents a field where a right person must be at the right place at the right time, as reported by TASR.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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