Negotiators may ask EU to transfer more funds to agricultural sector

Polish negotiators to the EU may ask Brussels to transfer some of its structural aid originally earmarked for improving other sectors of Polish society to the country's agricultural sector. This means billions of euros may go to farmers, leaving the country with less funds to develop highways, sewage treatment plants and education programs. The negotiators fear Poland will not be able to allocate efficiently and in a timely manner all the money it expects to receive from the EU (euro 6 billion-euro 7 billion in 2006 alone) for development of these other areas. According to Jacek Soska, the head of the Agricultural European Integration Center (WCIE), Polish farmers should receive euro 3.4 billion a year in subsidies to remain competitive. In view that the EU has budgeted into its 2000-2006 budget almost complete funding for the other sectors but only a small part of projected necessary aid for Polish agriculture, and because the government puts aside only zl.600 million yearly for farmers, the negotiators came up with the idea to move EU funds from these sectors to agriculture. So far, the EU has been apprehensive about the project and claims it would only deter Polish farmers from modernizing the outdated agricultural sector. (Rzeczpospolita, p.B2) J.K.