AP Interview: Walesa says 30 years after Solidarity, more reforms needed in Poland

AP Interview: Walesa says reforms going too slowly

GDANSK, Poland — Solidarity founder and former Polish President Lech Walesa says that 30 years after his trade union movement paved the way for massive democratic reforms across Eastern Europe, more changes are still needed in his home country.

Walesa told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Poland needs to forge ahead with political, legal and economic reforms, or it risks never catching up with western European Union nations.

Walesa later in the day was to attend a concert marking the three decades since the so-called Gdansk agreements, in which the Solidarity movement he led forced then-ruling communists to sign concessions to striking shipyard workers.

The move eventually led to democratic changes in 1989 and spurred sweeping reforms across Eastern Europe.