Havel, a writer and playwright, was the leader of the anticommunist opposition in Czechoslovakia, the founder of Charter 77, human rights activist and defender of those persecuted by the regime. He served five years in prison. He supported the Polish democratic and independence aspirations and cooperated with the Workers’ Defence Committee KOR and Solidarity. He also co-founded the Polish-Czech-Slovak Solidarity. He continued his good cooperation with Poland also within the Visegrad Group after 1989 as President of Czechoslovakia and then of the Czech Republic.

After leaving office as President in 2003 he continued to support human rights movements and those fighting for democracy the world over, particularly east of the EU borders, including Belarus. He taught that ‘politics is not the art of the possible but of the impossible’.

Ever since the 1960s until his last days, Vaclav Havel’s voice was important for his country, for Poland, for Europe and for the world. His memory will always live on in Poland.

To honour the memory of Vaclav Havel, all the EU Council meetings under the Polish Presidency on Monday, 19 December, will commence with a minute of silence.

Radosław Sikorski

Minister of Foreign Affairs