EU penal clauses were designed to calm EU members, and not against Poland

This country will benefit from all advantages of becoming a member of the EU, as "I do not expect that any of the protection clauses would be used against Poland," a representative of one of the major members of the EU told Rzeczpospolita yesterday. He added that such clauses were usually mentioned in order to mobilize governments of Poland and other candidate countries, and to calm down current EU members, by giving them some kind of defense mechanisms which could be applied if any problems arose. According to the Accession Treaty, the European Commission could exclude Poland from some membership benefits if it openly violated any of its negotiated obligations. One of the options would be to forbid the export of various Polish products into the EU, or to partially deny Poland EU aid. According to Poland's Deputy Minister for European Affairs, Jarosław Pietras, Poland faces the largest problems in relation to introducing EU system to certify products, as well as modernizing its fishery and food industries. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) M.M.