EU summit a success for Poland

The EU summit has brought victory for the Polish government. According to foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, the most important achievement was the EU's acceptance of Polish arguments concerning the climate package.

"Without doubt, it ended with our success," said President Lech Kaczyński during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Donald Tusk after the summit. "Unanimity rule was kept in scope of the climate package," he added. However, the President let PM Tusk to discuss the details of the plan as he concentrated on the Lisbon Treaty stating that Ireland's changes have been accepted, which hopefully will help the country ratify the treaty next year.

Meanwhile, Tusk said that Poland gained success in negotiating the climate deal. It has consented to the France proposed mechanism of gradual increase of the CO2 emission fees to reach 100 percent by 2020. In the first stage, the transitional period of 2012-2019 will see Poland's plants buying 30 percent of rights to emit CO2 and in 2019 that will increase to 80 percent and finally in 2020, up to 100 percent.

Thanks to this agreement, Poland has gained zł.60 billion for the years 2013-2020. "It's not that we got a wagon of money, we got a chance to modernize," Tusk said. (ZN)