Polish military unable to meet NATO obligations due to budget crisis

The government has announced that Poland will not be able to achieve 17 NATO obligations that had been agreed upon in 2000. Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said that the current economic and budget situation does not allow for large military expenditures. A Civic Platform (PO) representative earlier sent a letter to Minister Szmajdzinski inquiring as to how Poland plans to fulfill this year's NATO objectives, which would cost zl. 2 billlion, when the Treasury currently has only zl. 1.2 billion for military spending. The government's budget crisis led to large cutbacks in the military's budget this year. Due to the cutbacks, many thousands of young men that would have been called up for military duty this year will not receive notices of conscription. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A3) A.K.