"Fair" EU financial aid package to include reduced farming subsidies

Comments by a senior European Commission (EC) official appear to confirm it is now almost certain that Poland will not get its full entitlement of direct farming subsidies immediately after it joins the European Union (EU). "Any EU aspiring country which insists on receiving the full farming s ubsidies in the first year of membership can say goodbye to accession in 2004," the official told Gazeta Wyborcza. However, the EU insists that its financial aid offer will still be "fair", which will likely mean Poland receiving only some euro 400 million of direct farming subsidies in the first year of membership, but a lot more in structural aid designed to, among other things, support necessary restructuring in the farming sector. Structural and regional aid could amount to as much as euro 5 billion in the first year of membership and euro 20 billion over the first three years. (Gazeta Wyborcza, Jan. 19-20, p. 25) T.J.