Poland to close another chapter in EU negotiations, but still lagging behind

Poland will finish talks on corporate law in Brussels today, completing the 19th area of negotiations with the European Union (EU). After over three yea rs of negotiations, Poland is trailing the competition to enter the EU. Only Romania and Bulgaria are further behind. Poland is even lagging behind Latv ia and Lithuania, who started negotiations two years later. The government h opes to finish negotiations on taxes before the end of this year, and plans to clear all areas of negotiations except the budget, financial aspects of a griculture and regional policy before May 2002. The politically difficult an d delicate issues of land purchasing and labor will have to be completed in the first months of 2002. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 24) P.W.