Charles Crawford, British Ambassador to Poland, talks to Dena R. Gurgul.

■ What are Great Britain's priorities during its presidency of the European Union, and to what extent are those goals connected with Poland?
Maintaining a responsible but purposeful EU approach to the EU's further enlargement is obviously one priority. This is why we have been delighted that the EU under UK leadership has decided to open accession negotiations with both Turkey and Croatia-a historic result. Climate change is a huge strategic issue and work has been done on that within the EU and at the G8 and UN. Likewise development assistance for Africa. These are not issues that directly apply to Poland, although climate change and stability in Africa affect all of us in some way. On the other hand, the financial condition of the EU is very much of immediate concern to the Polish public and its leaders. That is why our Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has had two visits to Warsaw to talk with the Polish Prime Minister to explain our plans. We are going through a careful consultation process with all the members of the EU because after the referendum and the "bad feeling" at the end of the previous presidency, we're trying see if we can pull together a deal. Some people ask why nothing seems to be happening. It is happening. We are patiently doing the groundwork behind the scenes to see what might work, what kind of mood prevails in the member states. There are some occasions in diplomacy when you need to do things subtly.

■ How would you summarise Polish-British relations?
Terrific! I look at Poland's relations with some of its neighbours such as Belarus, Russia and Germany. It goes without saying that in each case there are a number of "legacy" issues of different shapes and sizes. There was an issue with Ukraine, for example, over the Eaglets Cemetery, which was recently resolved. These historical questions to some degree affect the psychology of the relationship.

We have had some important and difficult issues with Poland connected with WW II and its aftermath, such as the British reaction to the Katyn massacre, the death of General Sikorski, veterans of the Second World War and the Polish contribution to deciphering the Enigma device. Many Poles felt that the Polish contribution or role had not been properly recognised by the British government. We've taken these issues one by one and worked through them. The Foreign Office put out a document outlining the British attitude to the Katyn massacre. Recently the British-Polish Historical Committee report, describing the remarkable Polish intelligence contribution to the Allies' WW II effort, was launched successfully in London and Warsaw. Polish veterans were well represented in the July commemorations of the end of WW II in London; the last Polish President-in-Exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, was at Buckingham Palace.

So I think we've made a huge effort to resolve these issues of the past. Now we want to look to the future.

Many of my Polish colleagues say that this sort of fair-mined bilateral work is a model for how such processes should be conducted. To be fair to the ambassadors of other embassies, the issues we have are not nearly as dramatic as some of the issues they have to cope with. The Russian approach to Poland is influenced by a long history, so the issues there are bigger and more sensitive. I'm very pleased that we are resolving our issues and so can move on.

In the meantime, free movement of workers is going very well. It has to be said that when Poles go to Great Britain, they become part of British society. I attended myself the funerals of the three Poles killed in the recent London bombings, the positive aspects of the whole freedom of movement experience have been a model for the rest of Europe. People are worried about change, but we have to face up modern conditions. There is nothing more "European" than allowing people to move around and find jobs across the EU. That is the essence of the Treaty of Rome.

■ Are there any aspects of relations that need to be deepened?
We would all like to see more business in both directions. We would like to see more Polish companies investing in Great Britain. Poles always talk about British investment in Poland, but there are some wealthy Polish firms that could also bring their business to Britain. Billions of investment dollars go through London every day and the question is, how much of that will Poland get? We're all competing for investment. We all want Europe to be competitive and if British firms find their competitive edge by coming to Poland, that send a signal to the UK that we need to raise our own competitiveness. We take the logic of competition seriously.

It looks as if Poland's new government will want to improve Poland's ability to compete, and we look forward to working with them. We've done good bilateral work already on using modern technology for justice reform or discussing public procurement over the Internet. If the new Polish Government want to develop this cooperation as part of their planned reforms we will be pleased to work with them.

■ Are there any particular goals you would like to accomplish before leaving Poland?
There aren't many countries where history doesn't matter, and amazing, terrible things have happened in this part of the world. Many of these subjects were repressed for so long and couldn't be written about. There is still a lot to do in coming to terms with these issues. The fact that the Museum of the History of Polish Jews is now moving ahead-is very positive, and the Embassy is keen to do what it can to help that project; I plan to be in London in November for a major fund-raising event hosted by Prudential. More generally, Poland's influence within the European Union in talking about the EU's Eastern Neighbours agenda will grow. We all have to deal with this issue creatively and effectively. Otherwise we can't come to terms with what Europe actually is-a pretty basic question. Poland will increasingly put this question on the table in a firm way. For someone like me with a career background in the former communist world, that is very welcome. I don't like to be bored.