Major changes to the law are planned to speed-up Poland's admission to EU

The government is planning to make hundreds of changes to the law in order to meet European Union (EU) standards. Even so, entry to the EU for any of the 10 central- and eastern-European candidates is unlikely before 2005. A cross-party committee is to be set up, which will have the right to improve proposed draft bills. The EU has criticized Poland for not moving fast enough to adapt its legal code to EU standards. "The idea is to take the European component out of whatever draft laws are in preparation and put them together in one law," said top Poland EU-negotiator Jaroslaw Pietras. (Reuters) M.M.