Government agencies to be axed says Miller - "no way" says Kalinowski

Yesterday Prime Minister Leszek Miller said in a radio interview that the government was thinking about closing down some state agencies and funds, including agricultural agencies. Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kalinowski, however, announced at a press conference that "there is no way" that any agricultural agencies were to be liquidated. Miller said that the Agricultural Market Agency (ARR), Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARiMR), National Fund for Environmental Protection (NFOS) and State Fund for the Handicapped (PPON) as well as some others would have to end their activities so that government expenditures could be cut. "The state has to be cheaper," said Miller. According to the Prime Minister the project will be considered at the government's meeting on June 11. Meanwhile, Kalinowski said that ARR and ARiMR will have to be operational while Poland accedes to the European Union (EU) and that the government is merely preparing plans for their restructuring not their liquidation. (Zycie, pp. 1, 5; Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 17) A.D.