EU foreign affairs committee puts pressure on government over cronies

Poland's chief European Union (EU) membership negotiator, Jan Truszczynski, had to face tough questions during yesterday's debate in the European Parliament. Some EU politicians, including British deputy Edward McMil lan-Scott, attacked Poland's government for packing its cronies on to boards of state-controlled firms and "purging"key posts in the civil service. Truszczynski told members of the EU Parliament's foreign affairs committee, "The changes in the board's were limited to sightly more than 10 companies and in all cases we had sound economic justification."Other accusations concerned the 2001 deal between Dutch-based insurer Eureko and PZU. (R euters, Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 8, Zycie, p. 4) A.D.