Out of the frying pan

Accentuating the positive didn't get the European Commission's agriculture chief, Franz Fischler, too far in the Sejm last week after euroskeptic parliamentarians responded to the Austrian's somewhat rosy portrait of EU enlargement with angry taunts and whistles. With EU negotiations in the home stretch, representatives of Poland's vast farming community were not impressed when Fischler declared that "it would be a big mistake to nourish false illusions within the farming community. The room for maneuver for compromises in the negotiation package is limited." Someone from the EC should have told that to Polish farmers years ago. Instead, they are becoming increasingly agitated over whether the Western bloc has any intention of raising the level of aid for Poland's rural community. As it stands, farmers will at first get 25% of the funding that their Western counterparts receive. Since this figure was announced last winter, there has been no indication that an increase might be offered. If Fischler's remarks were telling, then so were those of Bruno Dethomas, the head of the EU's delegation in Poland. Dethomas said at a WBJ Business Breakfast last week that Polish farmers would remain unsatisfied no matter how much money they received. While he's partially right, his view is that of an outsider. Perhaps even a French one.

Farmers might be less frustrated if they thought the EC was listening to their concerns. What they don't want to hear, though, are statements from eurocrats that it's better to be in the EU than out. Someday that will be true, but not in the near term. And it's the short term that Polish farmers have to worry about. Most of them are in no position to consider the benefits that membership in the Western economic and political bloc of nations will bring some five, 10 or 20 years down the road. Their concern is Jan. 1, 2004 and the flood of subsidized, tariff-free Western European goods that are scheduled to start flowing across the border that day. Agriculture Minister Jarosław Kalinowski is right to keep the pressure on Brussels. One of his proposals is to reroute a chunk of the funding earmarked for structural reforms to subsidize certain food markets. So much for the free market. But how else are domestic farmers supposed to compete? As Fischler himself acknowledged, Poland's "specific culture is not easily comparable with that of other parts of Europe." Whether that should be taken as a clue that Brussels might be willing to do more to even the playing field on agriculture remains to be seen. It's true that Poland has an enormous amount of work ahead to demonstrate that it is capable of spending EU cash properly. But this issue should not be used as a tool to ignore the fact that Poland's huge rural community is truly a special case among candidate countries. Brussels must also understand that the government needs to appear as though it sealed the best deal possible if it is to win a public referendum on membership next year. A lot is at stake. The next time Fischler comes to town, let's hope he has more to offer Polish farmers than images of picturesque landscapes years down the road.