Poland’s new faces are loud and proud in Parliament

Date: 17/02/05

IT was, in the words of former Polish president Lech Walesa, the moment "generations" of Poles had been waiting for: Tuesday, 20 July, the day when newly-elected Polish MEPs took their seats in the European Parliament for the first time.

The delegation of 54 Polish MEPs is the same size as the delegation of Spanish MEPs in a Parliament of 732. But in qualitative terms, six months after they took their seats, are the Poles having as much influence as the Spaniards?

The Spanish MEPs are heavily concentrated in the two biggest political groups, the centre-right EPP-ED and the Socialist PES. In each group, there are 24 Spanish MEPs with six others spread across another three groups.

But the Polish MEPs are spread more thinly. The 19 members of the centre-right Civic Platform sit with the biggest group, the EPP-ED, while there are ten Poles in the Socialist group and four in the third biggest group, the Liberal bloc, ALDE.

Turn-out in Poland in the June elections to the European Parliament was a pitiful 20% and the populist parties did well. The League of Polish Families has ten MEPs who have joined the Independence and Democracy group, where their allies include Danish Eurosceptic Jens-Peter Bonde and the UK Independence Party. Seven of the Samoobrona (Self Defence) deputies are in the Union for Europe of the Nations group (UEN). There are four unattached members.

That means 21 of the 54 Polish MEPs are not members of the four biggest groups in the Parliament, which has probably reduced their effectiveness as a fighting force.

The Poles have made little impact on the Socialist group, which is still dominated by the Germans, French and British.

Their presence in the ALDE group is small but they do have two serious figures. Janusz Onyszkiewicz, a former spokesman for the Solidarity movement, is a vice-president of the Parliament. Bronislaw Geremek, a former foreign minister, stood for the presidency of the Parliament in June but lost out. The ALDE group has failed to undo the deal, sewn up between the EPP-ED and the PES, which shared out the presidency of the Parliament for the next five years between the Socialist Spaniard Josep Borrell and the EPP-ED group leader, Hans-Gert Pöttering.

The Poles had more success and proved more united over Ukraine. In the midst of the 'orange revolution', the Parliament was initially reluctant to make any sort of promises to Ukraine. The only group really pressing for such a promise were the Polish MEPs. They got their way, chiefly says one observer, "by doing the leg-work". They drummed up support and famously turned the Parliament orange with the distribution of Yushchenko scarves.

Another official in the Parliament said: "I think the Poles have surprised quite a few people by quickly learning the importance of securing support from other like-minded politicians in other groups, not least on issues like the Ukraine."

The episode gave a glimpse of the potential power of the Polish contingent.

Their stance on Ukraine was the subject of an unseemly row with Josep Borrell, the assembly's president. He was reported to have made remarks at a dinner in Madrid which disparaged their stance on Ukraine. Later he was shown to have been misquoted.

The Poles suspect the Socialist Borrell of being instinctively sympathetic towards communism, whereas opposition to communism is what has shaped many of them. While Borrell is anti-clerical, many of them are supportive of the Roman Catholic church. Mutual distrust informs the relationship between many Polish MEPs and their president.

Borrell warned Polish MEPs against displaying Polish flags at their seats in the Parliament. Maciej Giertych, leader of the League of Polish Families, says they will continue to do so.

"It defines who we are and what we stand for," he says. "Some may call it nationalistic but we're proud of our country and want everyone to know it."

While admitting to being "frustrated" at the limited influence small groups such as his can make, he believes his compatriots have made a positive impact.

"Parliament has given us all a platform and our presence here has helped remind people that Poles are a force to be reckoned with," he says.

One of the most forceful is the centre-right MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski. A vice-president of the Parliament, he is now one of the most important of the Polish intake and will be a figure of influence if he does not return to domestic politics. "It's been a successful half-year," he says. "We have entered mainstream Parliamentary work and made a significant contribution."

Jerzy Buzek, a former prime minister, is another heavyweight figure. The Poles obtained two of the four committee chairs allocated to new member state MEPs, including the influential budgets committee, which went to EPP-ED deputy Janusz Lewandowksi, widely seen as the founding father of Poland's stock exchange.

UEN member Marcin Libicki was chosen to chair the petitions committee while the deputy chairs of two other important committees, agriculture and regional development, are also filled by Poles.

Of the new member states, Poland had the highest percentage of MEPs not supporting the constitution. While the Parliament as a whole voted massively in favour of the draft treaty, 38 of the 54 Polish members voted against or abstained, with many being rebuked by Borrell for waving anti-constitution banners in the chamber.

Such behaviour was to be expected of the Eurosceptic fringe. But the centre-right EPP-ED members might find that their failure to back the constitution loses them standing. They either opposed the constitution or were lukewarm in their support, some because of the failure to include mention of God in the preamble, others as a legacy of the dispute over whether to persist with the voting weights laid down in the Nice Treaty.

The Polish centre-right may prove more adventurous on the subject of Turkey. They are on the whole strongly supportive of Turkey's membership of the EU, while the German contingent, which dominates the EPP-ED group, has been against. Turkey, no doubt, will be hoping that the influence of the Polish MEPs increases as the Parliamentary term goes on.

Analytical feature of the work and influence of Poland's 54 Members of the European Parliament in the first half year since the start of the legislative period in 2004.