Poland warns against ‘immoral’ price of joining Europe

Date: 01/02/01

Emotions are running high in Poland over reports that some member states may try to limit the movement of its workforce as a condition of the country joining the Union. Warsaw's outgoing ambassador to the EU, Jan Truszczynski, tells Simon Taylor that any such effort will be resisted strongly

Forcing Warsaw to accept restrictions on the ability of Polish citizens to work in the Union as the price of accession would be "immoral", warns Jan Truszczynski, the country's outgoing ambassador to the EU.

Truszczynski, who leaves Brussels this week after ten years to become Union affairs advisor to Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, also claims that enlargement could be seriously delayed if the Union fails to finalise its negotiating position on agriculture by next year.

Asked about reports that the European Commission is considering a system of quotas for specific types of workers from certain applicant countries, such as nurses and information technology experts, the ambassador says Poland would reject such limits even though it might help to soothe German concern about enlargement.

"I would be hard put to agree to a solution which imposes barriers, however limited, on blue-collar workers but which opens the door wide to white-collar workers," he said, adding this would be an "immoral approach to the issue of the free movement of labour".

Truszczynski claims that the fears of Germany and other EU states bordering applicant countries are not substantiated by analyses of the effect of enlargement on labour flows.

"Our view is not negated by the impact analysis of the Commission," he said, referring to a study published last year which found that if the first wave of enlargement took place in 2002 and the EU allowed full free movement from day one, there would be an immediate net migration of 335,000 people - 220,000 of whom would go to Germany.

The Commission has argued that the figures paint a less alarming picture than the common view in Berlin that Germany will be swamped with immigrants from the east after enlargement.

But Truszczynski admits that free movement poses political difficulties for several member states and agrees with Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen that the question poses a "psycho-political problem" for Germany.

"If the Germans say that in order to secure the approval of their electorate for accession they need some limited transitional periods they are not inventing stories. It's based on the prevailing feeling in Germany," Truszczynski said.

But he flatly rules out compromising on the issue in order to make it easier for Poland to join the Union.

"There is no reason for Poland not to uphold the view that this freedom should be full together with the other freedoms of the single market," he said.

Verheugen has said the Commission will draw up proposed rules on free movement in April, once a series of studies into the impact of enlargement on the EU's labour market have been completed and discussed. The issue promises to be one of the most difficult questions in the accession process, especially since German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has demanded a seven-year delay before granting citizens from the new member states the right to work in the Union.

Truszczynski also dismisses suggestions that Poland's plan to conclude talks on a wide range of EU legislation by June is unrealistic. Warsaw has identified 11 chapters of the negotiations which it believes can be closed by the end of the Swedish presidency.

"Admittedly it's ambitious but without ambitious targets there is no way to motivate greater efforts here and in Warsaw," he said.

Last week, the Commission's top enlargement official Eneko Landaburu poured cold water on Poland's plans. "What the Poles want is too ambitious and unrealistic," he said. "It seems to me that it will be very difficult to close negotiations on 11 chapters under Sweden's chairmanship of the EU."

Ambassador Truszczynski says the negotiations on free movement of goods and customs issues are nearly complete. He adds that with a "minimum of goodwill and a willingness to work towards a compromise" there could be progress on social and employment policy, company law, transport, energy and taxation.

But he concedes that Poland will have to show more flexibility in its requests for transition periods in the fields of transport and energy if these chapters are to be closed.

And while he does not dispute that it will be difficult to wrap up talks on free movement of citizens and capital, Truszczynski suggests a solution might be possible if EU states are prepared to set aside some of the most sensitive issues until later in the enlargement process.

"Only two issues are outstanding," he said, referring the question of transition periods before Polish citizens are given full rights to free movement and to Warsaw's insistence on a ten-year delay before foreigners are allowed to buy Polish land.

Negotiations on environmental standards and competition rules would be the toughest chapters for Poland, he suggests. The Union and Warsaw are at odds over how soon Poland should be required to meet EU environmental standards.

Truszczynski warns that the most serious obstacle to Poland's goal of joining the Union in 2003 is member states' failure to agree their negotiating position on the key question of agriculture.

"If the Union were unable to generate something at the latest under the Spanish presidency we might run into a delay on the conclusion of talks," he warned.

Spain's ambassador to the EU, Javier Conde, has already admitted that it will be difficult for Madrid to broker a deal on the most controversial issues which will be left for 2002, including the applicants' share-out of the Union's generous agricultural support and regional aid budgets.

The Polish ambassador says a crucial factor will be whether a planned review of agricultural policy can be concluded next year and whether member states will want to incorporate its outcome in their final negotiating position.

Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler already favours extending the review to a wider range of sectors than those agreed by EU leaders as part of the 1999 deal struck in Berlin. A more comprehensive rethink on farm policy could take longer.

For Truszczynski, the biggest threat to Poland's enlargement may well not end up being the issue of free movement, but "the lack of ability on the part of the member states to achieve a common position on agriculture".

Emotions are running high in Poland over reports that some Member States may try to limit the movement of its workforce as a condition of the country joining the Union. Warsaw's outgoing ambassador to the EU, Jan Truszczynski says that any such effort will be resisted strongly.