Government vows increased flexibility to speed up EU entry negotiations

The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD)-led cabinet approved concessions to the European Union (EU) yesterday aimed at getting entry talks back on track for completion next year and making it possible for Poland to join the EU in 2004. Prime Minister Leszek Miller agreed to the German-led proposal for a ban of between two and seven years on opening the EU labor market to workers from Poland and softened his requirements concerning purchasing of land by foreigners. Meanwhile, EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said recently that an expansion of the EU is possible without Poland being one of the countries, and that a positive report on Poland's progress published on Wednesday by Brussels is no guarantee that Poland will be within the first countries to join the EU. "There will be a large expansion if it is with Poland," the commissioner said. "There will be a small expansion, if it is without Poland." (Puls Biznesu, p. 14; Reuters) A.K.