Election success of Euro-skeptics casts a shadow over EU accession talks

It is still unclear whether the new Democratic Left Alliance (SLD)-led government will have sufficient parliamentary support to implement its planned pro-European Union (EU) policies. Poland's negotiations on accession to the EU have practically ground to a halt, with the outgoing government unable to undertake the most important decisions. At the same time, domestic and international observers point out that Poles have voted in large numbers for Euro-skeptic parties such as the Polish Peasants Party (PSL), and for anti-European factions such as the controversial farmers' committee Samoobrona. Although the SLD, Civic Platform (PO), Solidarity Election Action of the Right (AWSP) and Freedom Union (UW) signed an Integration Pact on cooperating in promoting Poland's EU entry, only two of these parties will be represented in the new parliament. Taking a positive view is leading SLD politician Jozef Oleksy, the man rumored to be the next head of the parliamentary EU Integration Commission. He told Gazeta Wyborcza, "We do not perceive Poland's accession to the EU as a goal in itself but as a means of modernizing the country." (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 14) M.T.K.