Getting those cross-border blues

Staying with the EU theme this week, the UK's Financial Times reported that, from October 1, Poland has introduced visa requirements for citizens from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the enclave of Kaliningrad. In an informative and well-written article, the author interviewed two Ukrainians with differing opinions on what the new restrictions will mean for them. Mrs Vojtovich, an illegal sweeper in Warsaw, complained that by having to go back after three months she would lose many clients, while Sveta Shibista, an illegal vodka seller, was more relaxed because, after all, visas for Ukrainians are free.

Interestingly, while this is the case for Ukrainians, those in Belarus now have to pay $10 for a single entry and $50 for a multiple-entry visa. The one million Russians living in Kaliningrad will get free visas, while Russians elsewhere also now have to pay. Poles can travel to Ukraine without a visa, but need them for Belarus and Russia. The author summed up with quotations from the Polish Ministry of the Economy, which concluded that the market in cheap tobacco and alcohol would soon bounce back and, unsurprisingly, there will not be an impact on GDP growth in Poland.

But what do Poland's neighbors think?

The previous day, Belarussian television reported that an "international incident" had occurred on the Polish-Belarussian border, when the Polish authorities refused entry to a number of Russian citizens (Chechens) whose papers were nonetheless in order. The presenter of this wonderfully slanted news item complained that, yet again, Belarus was stuck having to deal with other countries' problems. The item then cut to a correspondent at the scene who interviewed the Chechens trying to get into Poland ahead of the visa requirement being introduced. Although about 10 percent were allowed through, the rest were "rounded up like sheep" and given no reason why they were being sent back. They had contacted the Russian consul, who told them to go to the Polish consul, who told them - you guessed it - to go to the Russian consul. The correspondent then spoke to a Belarussian border guard who said that the Chechens' papers were in order and that he couldn't understand why the Poles wouldn't let them in. No conclusions were drawn by either presenter or correspondent, but imagining millions of offended Belarussians, shaking their fists at their television, screens took little effort. All this is a result of Poland's pre-accession obligations, helped along by over E200 million in Phare funds. After next May, Poland will have the longest land border with non-EU countries of any member state.

Also, this week, a mention has to go to one of those stories that make you wince. Reported in publications as far afield as Scotland's The Scotsman and even Iran's Tehran Times, a survey presented to the European Cancer Conference in Copenhagen announced a league table of cancer survival rates in European countries.

The basis for the survey was an individual's chances of surviving five years with a diagnosis of any type of cancer. Although survival rates are increasing throughout west-European countries, the gap with east Europe is increasing. The people with the best odds of beating the disease are in France and Austria, while those in the U.K. are below average. The people with the least chances are... in Poland. The only crumb of comfort was that critics of the study say that those countries at the bottom are only there because they have more accurate ways of reporting cancer rates.

Somehow, as I light up another cigarette, that doesn't make me feel any better.