On September 13-15, 2023, I took part in the international conference Krynica Forum 2023. The slogan of this year’s edition of the event was: „Empowering the Region”. The event was held under the honorary patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, who took part in several thematic panels. Krynica Forum 2023 is an event combining business, politics and academia. The conference program focused on three dimensions of the new security architecture: strategic, energy and climate security. During 3 days of debates as part of six thematic paths on 8 stages, several dozen speakers took part, including leaders of politics, economy, armed forces, experts and representatives of the international community. The foreign guests included:
– Gitanas Nausėda – President of Lithuania.
– Han Duck-soo – Prime Minister of Korea.
– Borut Pahor – President of Slovenia from 2012 to 2022.
– Øystein Bø – Ambassador of Agréé Norway in the Republic of Poland.
– Muriel Domenach – Permanent Representative of France to NATO.
The thematic paths focused on the following issues:
I. Strategic security.
II. Energetic safety.
III. Climate security.
IV. Ukraine – support, cooperation, reconstruction.
V. Korean-Polish Forum.
VI. Business and economy. Looking to the future.
Many state universities were involved in the Economic Forum, including: Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Krakow University of Technology, Tadeusz Kościuszko, Warsaw School of Economics, Krakow University of Economics, Academy of War Arts, University of Łódź and others. In turn, the guests from the government of the Republic of Poland included: Henryk Kowalczyk – minister-member of the Council of Ministers, chairman of the Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers, Andrzej Adamczyk – minister of infrastructure, Jacek Sasin – minister of state assets, Jadwiga Emilewicz – secretary of state at the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy. The speakers also included representatives of the military, including: Lieutenant General Wiesław Kukuła – General Commander of the Branches of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Dr. Piotr A. Błazeusz – First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, Lieutenant General Krzysztof Król – Chief of Staff in Allied Joint Force Command in Brunssum (Netherlands), Brig. Gen. Marcin Górka – director of the Innovation Department at the Ministry of National Defense.
I personally took part in the debate that took place on the second day of the forum. The panel concerned strategic security and was titled: „Poland and the war in Ukraine. Challenges, forecasts and a new security strategy”. The debate was attended by Lieutenant General Wiesław Kukuła – General Commander of the Armed Forces, Dr. Michał Marek – President of the Management Board of the Center for Research on the Contemporary Security Environment and Kamil Pachecki – specialist in strategic security and international policy. The debate was moderated by editor Michał Karnowski. Topics covered include: threads related to the organization and size of the army, the problem of disinformation and punishment for espionage, as well as the issue of public awareness of threats and country security.
During my speech, I emphasized issues related to the protection of critical infrastructure, which plays an extremely important role in terms of national and international security. Additionally, I pointed out the latest legal solutions regarding legislative acts that can ensure security of critical infrastructure. At the same time, I emphasized how important international cooperation is in this area. I also mentioned the role of the prosecutor’s office in the international investigation into the war of aggression initiated by the Russian Federation.
During the speech, I also discussed the structural changes of the Polish prosecution service. I mentioned that in 2018, the Espionage Unit was created, which had never been in the structures of the prosecutor’s office before. Prior to the creation of the department, there were only three espionage cases, while now there are more than twenty. I also mentioned that at the level of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Cybercrime Department was created. The Public Prosecutor’s Office in this respect supervises, among other things, the Central Office set up to combat cybercrime. At the same time, I signalled and discussed statistical data related to computer security incidents. After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the specially established CESIRT team recorded more than 762,000 reports of a potential ICT incident. After verification, it turned out that the actual cyberattacks were in the range of 27,000. In addition, in terms of critical infrastructure, I pointed out a historical feature in this regard. Namely, the first documents concerning, admittedly not directly speaking about critical infrastructure, but containing issues related to critical infrastructure were Additional Protocols No. 1 and 2 to the Geneva Conventions of August 1949, where Article 55 and 56 mentioned issues related to the environment, as well as the prohibition of attacking civilian structures, dams of power plants including nuclear power plants. In contrast, the first document where the concept of critical infrastructure appeared was the Bill Clinton Directive of 22 May 1998 on the protection of critical infrastructures. The Council Directive of 8 December 2008 on the Identification and Designation of European Critical Infrastructures is currently in force in our European legislation, and last year, i.e. at the end of 2022, further directives were issued which must be implemented in our country by October 2024, namely the NIS 2 and CER Directives. The first document deals with measures for a high common level of cyber security, while the second relates to the resilience of critical entities. I also discussed aspects related to the need to implement EU directives into our national legislation. In the last instalment of my speech, I discussed issues related to the assistance of the Polish prosecutor’s office regarding the aggression war in Ukraine. In this section, I pointed to initiatives regarding the establishment of a joint working group (JIT) between countries to collect and document war crimes.
In turn, General Kukuła emphasized how much devastation was caused to our mentality and consciousness by the times of apparent security and social dormancy. The conference also raised very important issues regarding cybersecurity. The participants of the debate „From troll to spy” also discussed the impact of technology on security. Counteracting cybercrimes and cyberespionage as a task for institutions and citizens. The participants of the debate agreed that we should expect attacks generated by artificial intelligence, new ones that we have not encountered before. New methods will be created, and our analysts will have to learn them.
An important aspect at the conference was that of the so-called security environment. Members of the National Development Council to the President of the Republic of Poland took part in a debate entitled: „The war in Ukraine as a catalyst for transforming the security environment of the Republic of Poland„. Participants in the discussion included Major General (Res.) Roman Polko, Ph.D. – commando, two-time commander of GROM, doctor of management, Prof. Andrzej Janusz Zybertowicz – social advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland, representative of the President of the Republic of Poland in the College for Special Services, Izabela Albrycht – director of the Cyber Security Centre at the AGH University of Science and Technology, and Przemysław Żurawski vel Grajewski, Ph.D. – chairman of the Security and Defence Council, professor at the University of Łódź in the Department of Foreign and Security Policy Theory. Prof. Przemysław Żurawski vel Grajewski highlighted the importance of transformations in social awareness. One of the most important transformations that has taken place in our country is that Poles know that the threat is real. They know that Russian occupation will mean what it has always meant, namely the extermination of the elite and the general destruction of the country. The only way to shield themselves from this threat is through military force. The National Security Office has taken patronage of the debate entitled: ‘Poland’s response to conventional and hybrid threats. Lessons from the Presidential Bill’.
It was attended by Lieutenant General Krzysztof Król – Chief of Staff at the Allied Command of the Combined Forces in Brunssum (Netherlands), Dr Piotr Zuzankiewicz – Director of the Department of Defence Strategy and Planning at the Ministry of Defence, Major General (Res.) Andrzej Reudowicz – Advisor to the Head of the National Security Office, Lieutenant General Dariusz Łukowski – Deputy Head of the National Security Office, and Dr Przemysław Paździorek from the Academy of Military Art. The debate was heard by the Head of the National Security Bureau, Minister Jacek Siewiera. The participants emphasised the need to adapt national legislation to NATO doctrine, which has been changing for some time, particularly with regard to the deterrence function. The guests drew attention to the issue of the relationship between political intentions and the army’s actions with regard to strategic planning. One of the aims of the Act is to create new tools for responding to hybrid threats. Another programme track of the Krynica Forum 2023 included the topic of energy security. The first panel served to answer the question „Derusification of the European energy sector – a realistic goal or utopia?”. The following took part in the debate: Agnieszka Kaźmierczak – Director General of the Euratom (European Atomic Energy Community) Supply Agency, Paweł Strączyński – Vice-President of the Management Board of Bank Pekao S.A., Tomasz Młynarski, Ph.D., Professor at the Jagiellonian University – expert on energy cooperation in the European Union, and Magdalena Maj – Head of the Climate and Energy Team at the Polish Economic Institute.
I therefore consider that the dissemination event was a success.
Below are the websites for this event and a link to a speech at the panel concerning, among other things, the protection of critical infrastructure.
– https://SUMMARY REPORT KRYNICA FORUM 2023.pdf
– https://krynicaforum.pl/en-us/prelegents – https://krynicaforum.pl/en-us/program2
