SHAPE (Supreme Command of NATO Allied Forces in Europe)
The garrison has 16.5 thousand. people (soldiers, NATO civilian workers, their families); About 7,000 people work / serve in the barracks complex. There are eleven schools affiliated with SHAPE under the name "SHAPE International School". The largest of these is the American school, Belgian, British, German. In the area there are also smaller schools like Polish, Greek or Turkish and Italian. In the SHAPE garrison (the Supreme Command of NATO Alliance Forces in Europe), currently 91 Polish soldiers serve, and 93 children of Polish children attend the International School. On the campus there is the International Library (SHAPE International Library), which collects book collections in 17 different languages. The children of Polish staff (but also children of Polish civilian employees employed in NATO structures, in institutions located on the campus) attend Polish school for additional classes thanks to which they have contact with the Polish language and knowledge in the field of history, knowledge about society and geography.
The genesis of the action
On November 15-16 representatives of the Sejm National Defense Committee (SKON) paid a visit to the NATO Headquarters in Brussels and the Supreme Headquarter Allied Powers Europe, SHAPE in Mons. The co-organizer of the visit of deputies to the NATO quarters was the Nobilis Media Safety and Defense think tank.
The delegation was headed by Deputy Michał Jach, President of SKON, who was accompanied by six other members of the Commission. Among the deputies were Marek Jakubiak, Deputy Chairman of SKON, and deputy and deputies: Anna Maria Siarkowska, Leszek Dobrzyński, Radosław Lubczyk, Artur Szałabawka and Paweł Szramka. SKON delegation was accompanied by Deputy Sylwester Chruszcz, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Infrastructure and Artur Bilski, President of the Management Board of Nobilis Media Safety and Defense, a Polish think-tank specializing in security and defense.
In Brussels, Polish MPs met with Ambassador Rose E. Gottemoeller, Deputy Secretary General of NATO, and participated in a series of briefings devoted to the current challenges facing the Alliance. During the meetings, inter alia, issues of relations with Russia, aspects related to the enhanced presence of NATO (enhanced Forward Presence, eFP) and the most important security threats from the point of view of the Alliance. Members also met with the management of several representatives of NATO member states at the Headquarters and ambassador Marek Ziółkowski, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland to NATO and the staff of the Representation.
In SHAPE, Polish guests were welcomed by Gen. Hugues Delort-Laval, deputy chief of staff of this quarters, who presented the most important aspects of cooperation between the Command and the armed forces of the NATO member states. Colonel Wojciech Ozga, the Polish National Military Representative at SHAPE, discussed the role and tasks of the office managed by him and presented the contribution of the Polish Armed Forces to the missions and operations currently underway by the Alliance. MEPs also took part in discussions with Marek Laity, adviser to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) Commander for Strategic Communications.
During the visit there was information from the Polish National Representation about the need to strengthen library collection for book positions in Polish. At the initiative of MP Leszek Dobrzyński and with the support of the think tank Nobilis Media, several thousand books were collected in Law and Justice offices, of which, after careful selection, 800 of them were prepared for transport to libraries in the Supreme Command of Operations in Mons. The Institute of National Remembrance also took part in the campaign, which gave the books in English on Polish history.