Overview
- Representatives of four German states and four Polish voivodships met in Poznań on Wednesday and installed Brandenburg as the two‑year chair of the Oder‑Partnerschaft with a focus on transport and security.
- The group issued a formal appeal asking the German federal government to accelerate Ostbahn upgrades and cross‑border electrification, and Poland’s deputy foreign minister publicly urged Berlin to provide the necessary funding.
- Officials warned that the Berlin–Küstrin‑Kietz section of the Ostbahn is not electrified and is partly single‑track on the German side, a constraint that lowers speed and capacity for passenger and freight services.
- Participants added cyberdefence and protection against sabotage to the agenda and said recent Russian stoppage of Kazakh oil transit to the PCK refinery in Schwedt/Oder raises immediate supply concerns and increases interest in routing more fuel through Polish ports such as Gdańsk.
- The appeal links short‑term crisis resilience and long‑term regional goals, and the partners said they will press Berlin to move from February‑level commitments to concrete funding and timelines to avoid multi‑year delays on other lines like Dresden–Görlitz and Angermünde–Stettin.