Signs of progress in EU agricultural negotiations as accession deadline nears

It seems that there has been some progress in the Polish-EU negotiations concerning the financing of rural integration. "We have to assure equal competition conditions for Polish farmers but that does not mean that from the start they will have identical rights to their western counterparts," said chief EU negotiator Jan Truszczynski. According to EU agriculture negotiator Jerzy Plewa, time pressure is gradually beginning to play a more important role. "We want to close the negotiations by the end of the year in order to join the alliance the year after," Plewa said. By persuading the EU to make concessions on production limits, Poland wants to compensate for the fact that it will be granted the maximum 25% of subsidies during its first year of membership. On Friday Plewa revealed some of the arguments intended to convince Brussels to grant greater limits. He indicated for example that with over 4 million hectares of pasture, Poland wants to be given a limit of 11.2 million tonnes of milk while Germany has a limit of 27 million tonnes with 5.1 million hectares. The EU is currently offering Poland a limit of 9 million tonnes. (Rzeczpospolita, June 29-30, p. B2) A.Z.