German border wary of Poland

Ilona Temler is a gifted strawberry seller, judging from the speed at which the fruit disappears from her roadside stand in the Eastern German border city of Frankfurt an der Oder. Temler's dream is to return to secretarial work, which she lost after communist East Germany collapsed in 1990 and unemployment soared. This wish, she fears, is becoming ever less likely as Poland, which lies just on the other side of the bridge over the Odra river, prepares to join the European Union in 2004. "I don't have anything against the Poles," she said. "I'm just scared that once Poland comes into the EU, I won't be able to find any work at all any more." The 15-member EU is due to expand by a further 10 states, eight of which are Eastern European countries, in 2004, and possibly by another three nations later in the decade. With only one set of trade rules governing EU member states, European affairs and economics experts say business across national borders will become much simpler. But Temler's concern is shared by many people in the border region of Eastern Germany. Unemployment in Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin and adjoining Poland in which Frankfurt an der Oder is situated, was 17.1% in May compared to the national average of 9.5%. There has long been animosity toward Germany in Poland, fueled by a heady mixture of World War II resentment, Cold War enmities and a continuing perception of Germans as cold and arrogant. Some Poles also fear Germans could use EU enlargement to buy back land which Berlin lost after 1945. But while negative preconceptions on the eastern side of the border have lessened as Poland has moved towards EU membership and better economic perspectives, many Germans in the border region are holding firmly onto theirs. A survey by the local branch of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce showed that Eastern German businesses are not much more enthusiastic about EU enlargement. More than half of the 260 business questioned said they expected their profits to sink when Poland joined the EU. A third of the firms expected to have to lay off staff. - Reuters