Polish Agriculture Minister opposes EC plans to reduce the price of sugar

The European Commission has proposed a radical liberalization of the sugar market, thanks to which sugar prices could drop at least by one third. "The high price of this product in the EU is the result of the organization of the market, which has not changed for the last forty years and has now reached absurd levels," said Gregor Kreuzhuber, the spokesman for the EU Agriculture Commissioner. However, Polish negotiators were against the radical solutions suggested by Brussels. "I refuse to accept any concepts which would lower our farmers' revenues," said Agriculture Minister Wojciech Olejniczak. According to Rzeczpospolita, Poland has already started building a coalition of countries, which would help to block the changes. The coalition includes Italy, Spain and Finland. "The stakes are high," emphasized Deputy Agriculture Minister Jerzy Plewa. Apart from France and Germany no other EU country produces as much sugar as Poland does. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) A.F.