Business leaders skeptical about EU concessions
Key concessions on environmental issues aimed at speeding up European Union (EU) entry should not be made at the expense of the private sector, business leaders here warned last week.
In what appears to be part of a larger move to accelerate EU entry talks, Polish negotiators announced 10 days ago that they had softened their original negotiating stance on the environment. (See related story on page 3). In an effort to close talks on the issue by the end of June, Polish negotiators revoked or rejigged half the demands for long transition periods, which figured prominently in the country's original position presented in 1999.
Transition periods give would-be members a chance to extend investments for adapting to EU standards beyond the actual date the country joins the Union.
While Poland's business leaders applauded efforts to speed up accession talks, they warned that concessions should not be granted at the expense of the private sector.
"We will do anything to assist in accession, including shortening transition periods, but please tell us if we are supposed to pay for that and how much," said Grzegorz Wlazlo, a legal adviser at the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP). "Then we will be able to calculate if we can afford that or not."
The World Bank estimates that in Poland roughly $2 billion a year is spent on improving the environment and adapting to EU environmental legislation. With only 8% of that sum coming in the form of foreign assistance, the majority of the annual bill is footed by public funds generated from either the private sector or institutions such as the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management.
The government estimates that E30 billion will be needed to completely adapt Poland's environment to EU norms.
With part of the burden to finance changes placed on companies, private sector leaders want to be fully consulted to assess whether they can afford to speed up efforts to meet EU standards.
"We have our doubts about how much we can handle," Wlazlo said. "Voting in laws and making commitments as part of accession talks is easy to do implementing those laws is a problem."
In refiguring its position, the negotiators dropped requests for six of the original 16 transition periods and shortened several others.
For their part government officials said they made concessions in areas they deemed no longer necessary. Consequently the changes will not cause undue burdens on the public or private sectors.
"We resigned from transition periods in areas where it turned out that problems don't really exist or where investments have already been made," said Deputy Environment Minister Janusz Radziejowski.
Radziejowski cited Poland's original request for an eight-year extension to protect water from nitrate pollution from agriculture sources. Nitrate pollution is caused either through heavy use of fertilizers or improper management of farm-animal waste.
According to Radziejowski, when Poland formally submitted its negotiation position in 1999 the problem was considered highly significant, but later analyses showed that nitrate pollution is only a minor environmental concern in Poland.
"We thought that there was going to be a big problem here and it turns out that in Poland the problem practically doesn't exist and there is no reason to apply for a transition period," Radziejowski said.
According to the World Bank, such changes are possible. Recent analyses carried out by the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW) have shown that only 4% of surface and groundwater supplies exhibited nitrate concentrations exceeding EU norms.
"Previously it was expected that most of Poland will be defined as so-called sensitive areas, which would require the construction of many small wastewater treatment plants," said Barbara Letachowicz, infrastructure sector operations officer at the World Bank offices in Warsaw.
While nitrate pollution is considered barely existent, faster-than-expected improvements in the quality of gas and fuel led to the government's decision to resign from a four-year transition period, Radziejowski said.
"Some refineries are already prepared (to meet EU standards) and others will be ready in a year or two," he said. "They know that if they want to participate on the EU market that they have to adapt to the standards quickly."
