Race to complete budget could mean Poland losing out on negotiations

Other new members expect Poland to be more active in negotiations this time round, providing more input than just political declarations. "Poland was very passive during the discussions concerning 2005 budget," said a European Parliament deputy. The strategy of the European Commission is simple and it envisages reaching a compromise before the UK takes over the presidency in the second half of 2005. Britain will be reluctant to cause any major controversy and risk losing its EU budget payment discounts. EU budget draft envisages increasing real ex penditures to 1.14% of the 25 states' GNP. This is strongly opposed by the largest net payers. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B2) M.M.