Procedural, political and international problems dog EU membership plans

Storm clouds are increasingly gathering over Poland's future EU membership. Now procedural problems may set back the idea of a spring 2003 membership referendum by several months. The problem is over the proposed question: "Are you in favor of signing the EU accession treaty as it now stands?" However, that question cannot be posed until the treaty itself is ready, which is unlikely to be any time before the EU meeting in Athens in April 2003. A different problem worries Deputy National Bank Governor Andrzej Bratkowski. He is concerned that a populist tide is rising against EU membership, which could spill over to even block market reforms. A question mark is put over membership not just from Self-Defense and the Polish Family League, but also now from the Law and Justice party. The latter lashed out at the entry terms offered by the EU, which added fuel to the populists' claims. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Tuesday that he did not expect the Union to reach a final deal on a financial offer to prospective new members before a summit later this month in Copenhagen. "I recognize the efforts by Denmark to put together this financial package. But it does not live up to our expectations," Schroeder told a news conference in Berlin. Member states, especially net contributors to the EU budget led by Germany, worry that a plan allowing candidates to top up subsidies to their farmers goes against efforts to reform the EU's costly Common Agricultural Policy (Reuters).