Poland's forty-five day negotiation marathon with the EU begins today

Yesterday, the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, presented the 10 candidate countries with financial conditions for the accession to the European Union. The news was welcomed by the Polish Prime Minister who nonetheless stressed that not all of the conditions presented were satisfactory. He also expressed the wish that the final negotiations be completed during the December EU summit in Copenhagen so that Poland would get a final green light to join the club. Today Poland begins a 45-day negotiating marathon to finally come to an agreement on key issues such as finance and agriculture. One of the main negotiating points will be the so-called structural funds which have recently been reduced by euro 2.6 billion, which means that Poland is very unlikely to receive euro 1.4 billion of this sum early promised. According to Premier Miller, Poland's negotiator Jan Truszczynski has enough arguments to appeal to the EU for higher farming subsidies. At present Poland has been offered 25% subsidies in the first year after accession which will gradually increase to 100% after a decade. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 8) J.K.