Norway may help Poland in return for lower fish duties

Norway will probably provide more financial help for EU candidate countries in exchange for limiting some of the customs duties on imports of its fish to the EU, as current Union members are close to reaching a compromise in negotiations on accepting further members to the European Economic Zone. The European Commission proposed creation of duty-free quotas similar to those currently used by Poland, where the fish processing industry has developed quite well. In theory, fees and customs duties would also be imposed on Poland, as of May 2004, which would wipe out the domestic fish sector. Norway is proposing to lower duties instead of keeping quotas as, in their opinion, this is the only way to sustain this business in Poland. In a ddition, Norway would increase its support for EU structural funds from the current euro 24 million annually to almost euro 150 million. (Rzeczpos polita, p. B2) M.M.