Polish PM, EU officials to review troubled ties

Apr 17 2007, 18:28

BRUSSELS (AP) - Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski attends the weekly meeting of the European Commission Wednesday, a session European Union officials hope can help repair their troubled relations with Poland which only joined the club three years ago.

Since joining the EU - on May 1, 2004, along with seven other former communist nations and Cyprus and Malta - Poland has become increasingly assertive, signalling a country of 39 million must not be seen as taking a back seat to Germany, France and Britain.

Poland is holding up progress in EU efforts to craft a new partnership with Russia, has ignored EU pleas to stop a highway project from scarring a primeval forest, has flouted EU rules on sound finances, and is at odds with the EU approach to climate change.

Warsaw has also left a mark on the EU agenda with its vehement criticism of the proposed EU Constitution. That criticism, EU officials say, stems from a Euro-skepticism in Polish politicians that clashes with strong support for the union in Polish society at large.

EU spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said, diplomatically, Tuesday that Kaczynski's visit to the EU head office would be "an occasion to look at any major issue which is currently on the agenda and ... examine how the mutual and common interests can be resolved."

Kaczynski is expected to spend about an hour with the 27-member European Commission which has its regular weekly meeting on Wednesday. He will also have lunch with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso before meeting face to face with some individual commissioners.

The abrasive style of the government of Kaczynski - whose twin brother Lech is Poland's president - have taken EU officials aback and given Warsaw a reputation as a difficult partner.

For its part, Poland insists on more solidarity from its EU partners.

Nowhere has this become clearer than in the EU's desperate bid to craft a new partnership agreement with Russia.

Poland wants Moscow to end a ban on Polish meat and plant products, imposed in 2005 due to health concerns. If not, Warsaw will continue to veto negotiations on closer energy ties between Moscow and the 27-nation bloc that would be part of an overall partnership deal.

The European Commission has been at pains to satisfy Russian concerns about Polish meat and plant products by providing specific information on how the EU will monitor meat hygiene in 2007.

This may have worked. EU officials have said Warsaw has signalled it may soon lift its veto of the EU-Russia energy negotiations.

The standoff will be discussed at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou will also meet Russia's Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev on Saturday in Cyprus to discuss the situation. Moscow has not yet indicated if or when it would end its embargo on Polish meat products.

Poland has been less forthcoming elsewhere. When Environment Minister Jan Szyszko came to Brussels recently to patch things up with the European Commission over Poland's plan to build a highway through a protected peat bog in violation of EU law, he made insufficient concessions. As a result, the EU began legal action against Warsaw in the EU high court.

In energy, Poland has been reluctant to back an EU target of generating 20 percent of all energy from renewables by 2020 for fear that would stifle its economy growth.    

www.bigmir.net
www.korrespondent.net
www.ukrbiz.net
www.uasport.net
www.ukrjob.net
www.afisha.ua
www.pink.com.ua
15minut.com.ua
www.bigbn.com.ua

© 2004 - 2007, BIGMIR-Internet.
The material may not be reproduced without the written consent of the owner.

Contact Kyiv Post