EU report sends mixed messages
By : Juliet D. Golden
Poland is moving to speed up negotiations over European Union (EU) entry following mixed signals from Brussels last week about whether the country can count on full membership by 2003.
In the latest annual report issued last week for all candidate countries, the EU praised Poland for achieving steady economic growth, speeding up privatization and updating its law books.
"This report dispels any doubts that Poland could find itself in the first group of countries that enter the EU," said Ewa Haczyk, spokeswoman for Jan Kulakowski, Poland's chief negotiator. "This is confirmation that Poland is at the head of this pack."
But while this year's report is a significant improvement, the EU commission stopped short of stating that Poland or any of the other 13 candidate countries could join the club by 2003 much to the dismay of Polish negotiators.
In setting out its strategy for accepting new members, the commission set a target for closing negotiations with top countries in the next two years that paves the way for invitations to join the EU by the end of 2002.
"This approach should permit the conclusion for negotiations in the course of 2002 with those candidate countries who fulfill all the criteria for membership, thus putting the union in a position to welcome new member states from the end of 2002," the EU report said.
For Poland, such a scenario means that realistically the country would obtain membership in 2004 at the earliest, given the long ratification process that ensues once invitations are issued. Before membership agreements become valid, they have to be ratified by the European Parliament and the individual parliaments of all member countries, a process Polish officials say could delay the final entry date by up to a year. "You have to count on at least a year," Haczyk said.
To force the issue, Polish negotiators are calling for entry talks to be completed in the next 13 months, leaving 2002 as the year to finalize the actual agreement. That way Poland would meet its target date of Jan. 1, 2003.
In making its bid, Poland is latching onto a statement in the commission's report suggesting that negotiations could be completed at an earlier date.
"This schedule is indicative and could, in a number of cases, be brought forward when the preparedness of a candidate country so permits," the report reads. "This is important," Haczyk said. "We believe that we can speed things up."
But to meet the earlier deadline, Poland would have to make it over the biggest hurdle in the negotiation process: agriculture and environment, two areas where Poland lagged behind in this year's EU report. Under the EU timetable issued last week, those negotiation topics are slated for completion in 2002.
Agriculture poses a particular problem for Poland's EU bid, given the size of the sector and the country's bid to secure direct subsidies for its farmers as guaranteed under the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). Some 25% of Poland's workforce lives in rural areas. Poland also has about 2 million farms, compared to the 8.5 million in the whole of the EU.
In addition, Poland lags behind in environmental standards and management of the country's borders, according to the report. It also said the country has not done enough to clear bottlenecks in the courts and in fighting corruption.
To speed up the entry process, Poland hopes to tackle these tough areas next year. By the end of this year, Polish negotiators aim to close four areas of negotiation: the free movement of services, free movement of goods, customs union and cultural and audio-visual policy, topics the EU has slated for closure next year. Ahead of the game, Poland would then have to make it through 14 chapters next year, slightly below half the number of the negotiation areas.
Poland's attempt to grab the initiative may not receive a response before the end of the year when EU countries meet in France to confirm the report and its enlargement strategy.
