Spain could hold key to compromise solution in EU talks with Poland

Within the next week, Spain, the current holder of the Euro pean Union (EU) presidency, will present the "15" with a compromise proposal on its standing over agricultural negotiations with Poland. The document is to include an offer to grant direct subsidies to Polish agriculture, but does not specify the size of these subsidies, or the transitory period before they come into force. The final sums are likely to be defined in the closing days of talks with Poland, probably in December 2002. Britain and Holland are against the current form of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and would prefer to gradually limit them. Germany and Austria are much more moderate, and agree to grant subsidies to Polish farmers. France, Italy and other major agricultural producers, which want to maintain the current CAP, warned that they would not accept the negotiating position with Poland without discussing subsidies. Polish negotiators think that without a clear EU standing on the issue, no other talks on agriculture can proceed. Poland estimates that under the present CAP rules it would receive euro 4 billion a year in direct subsidies from Brussels. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) P.W.