European Commission says "no" to proposals for five hundred new jobs

The Ministers of Finance of the 15 EU states, who meet today in Brussels, will reject a request to create 500 additional jobs in the European Commission in view of the accession of Poland and nine other candidate countries in a year and a half, claiming that the Union's current budget of euro 3.3 billion is sufficient. According to Brussels officials, if there is no agreement on additional jobs, the Commission will be not ready to "service" new members. The 500 positions include interpreters as well as 56 people dealing with agricultural policy, 54 working for the Union's Structural Funds administration and 73 to work on competition policies. These tasks are planned to be taken over fully from the current offices in Warsaw. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A6) P.W.