Dateline Warsaw - How corrupt is Poland?

Presented by Peter Gentle

In the studio I have dateline debutant, Ireland's freelance TV and radio reporter Liam Nolan and Polish Radio's John Beauchamp.

"Nuclear energy is a sensible way to proceed, however, it is not a panacea to the problems of our power industry," Hanna Trojanowska, Poland's first ever nuclear energy minister said when announcing an ambitious new drive towasrds transforming the nation's energy mix and lowering its reliance on high carbon coal and Russian gas.

Following the recent visit to Warsaw by US defence secretary Chuck Hagel, we ask what he meant when he looked forward to a "new era of defence cooperation" between the United States and Poland.

And the EU's home affairs commissioner estimates that graft costs Europe 120 billion euros a year, with new research finding the vast majority of Poles think it is still rife in the country, particularly in the health care sector and among politicians.

Nine-in-ten told a pollster that corruption continues to be a problem in Poland, with 39 percent certain it is a very big problem.

Eighty five percent think that high level politicians and officials have no qualms in offering lucrative posts to their families and friends.

The Europe-wide poll by the Eurobaromter data service found that Greeks perceived their debt-laden country as the most corrupt, with Danish citizens and business people thinking Denmark was the freest from graft and bribes.

So how corrupt is Poland, two decades after the fall of communism, when bribes and croneyism were a way of life for many?

All that and more in this edition of Dateline Warsaw - the show where journalists chew over the top news stories.

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