Waste produced by deep coal mining is heaped up in the landscape, and remains there as foreign matter. Several attempts have been made to plant trees and shrubs on the soil substrate of post-industrial wastelands. But despite high financial expense reclamation often failed, because ecological principles were ignored. In European countries the optimum vegetation is represented by a forest (which is the final stage of natural succession) restoration was mainly done through forestation. Natural plant communities represent a finally balanced system and it would be reasonable to take this into account, especially when reclamation is concerned. Botanists, phytosociologists and ecologists are aware that natural development of a plant cover, particularly on row soils starts with pioneer species. They are characterized by their low demand with respect to site conditions, especially water and nutrient supply. The biotops, which are the natural source of these species, have largely disappeared, and the so-called technosoils do not own a seedbank.

Oskar Halecki’s reception in French historiography is one of the interesting examples of diffi-culties in understanding Polish historical thought in France. As one of the leading authors of the concept of East‑Central Europe in world historiography, a descendant of the Viennese aristoc-racy and an ambassador of Polish humanities in the League of Nations Committee on Intellec-tual Cooperation, he promoted the history of the countries of the region, considering their independent of Russia cultural specificity, deeply connected with the values of the Christian Europe. Meanwhile, after the Second World War, the socio‑economically oriented historiogra-phy of “Annales” was gaining more and more popularity in Paris – and in Warsaw itself ...

The article discusses and evaluates current regulations and financing of fishing fleet management and adjustment to available marine bioresources.

The implementation of Common Fisheries Policy requires adequate financing and the European Fisheries Fund plays a crucial role in it. The Fund manages financial resources allocated for public aid distributed in connection with permanent cessation of fishing due to decommissioning of fishing vessels through complete scrapping. The practice is designed for balancing the strength of fishing fleets against available bioresources. This expenditure is required to conform with the EU financial guidelines and thus falls under scrutiny of the Commission and the European Court of Auditors. The ECA presents annual and special reports to the European Parliament and to the Council on this matter and provides recommendations to the Commission. The Commission responds accordingly.

The Italian-born French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and the French poet Philippe Quinault, both of whom worked at the court of King Louis XIV of France, wrote several operas ( tragédies lyriques) together. Except for the late period of their collaboration, they often employed mythical motifs as the subject of their operas. The plot of six of them is derived from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The present discussion briefly presents the beginnings of French opera and Lully’s and Quinault’s contributions to it, whereas the main concern is the influence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses on their six operas: Cadmus et Hermione ( LWV 49), Thésée ( LWV 51), Isis ( LWV 54), Proserpine ( LWV 58), Persée ( LWV 60) and Phaëton ( LWV 61). The main difference between Ovid’s text and the operas’ librettos lies in the even stronger emphasis on the theme of love, which complicates the stories.

Profiles of the three Polish humanists as remembered by prof. Michał Głowiński.

Ludwik Bohdan Grzeniewski (1930–2008) was Polish essayist, poet, critic and novelist. He was born and died in Warsaw, where he spent all his life. Well known as varsavianist, he was also master of literary miniature. It is not a literary genre in the strict sense. “Literary miniature”, coherent artistic statement, as short as possible, combines elements of poem, essay, short narrative and others. Grzeniewski always highly valued precision, he preferred condensed form of expression. I therefore think, that the books of this writer (Igły w stogu siana, “Drobiazgów duch, wspaniały i powietrzny…”, Taniec z mufką and others) deserve attention.