The list of no-shows at the Eastern Partnership summit in Prague proved even more shameful than I wrote yesterday. The Austrians sent... an ambassador! Talk about a clear diplomatic signal.

Below is the translation of a comment I published today in "Gazeta Wyborcza":

The East is not in fashion anymore

Last year, after the war in Georgia, the EU understood that it has to devote more attention to its eastern neighbours. Everybody agreed to the creation of the Eastern Partnership, proposed by Poland, and promised 600 mln euro for the project.

Yesterday it became clear that was just the mood of the moment. From among the largest countries of the EU only chancellor Angela Merkel showed up at the innauguration summit in Prague. Others gave all the excuses possible.

The prime ministers of the UK and Spain, Gordon Brown and José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had warned a long time ago they would not be coming, and they didn't.  The French president sent his prime minister. The Italian Silvio Berlusconi bowed out at the last moment, giving problems linked with his divorce as an excuse. Italy sent the labour minister instead, since the foreign minister was on a trip to Washington.

The Austrian prime minister said he could not come because of a flu, and the deputy prime minister - that nobody asked him to go. The country, which recently appealed for anticrisis help for the whole region, was represented only by their ambassador to the EU.

Even the Lithuanians, who are enthusiastic about the Eastern Partnership only sent a minister.

In these circumstances it's a good thing that the Polish government is not giving up and looking for funding for the Partnership beyond the borders of the EU. If they can be found the Partnership has a chance to last longer than 2013, when the 600 mln from the EU will run out.