Special Economic Zones stand in the way of European Union agreement

Minister Jan Kulakowski, the leading Polish negotiator on entry to the EU, has said he no longer holds out hope for a quick agreement on competition policy, given the resistance the EU has put up in the field of special economic zones (SSEs). A dispute has arisen over investors who signed a contract before the new law on Poland' s SSEs came into effect at the beginning of the year. In order to defend their rights and the status quo, Poland wants a transition agreement with the EU that will see it through until 2017, when the last of the contracts signed with SSE investors will lose its force. Brussels, pointing out that the very existence of these zones violates the association agreement between the two sides, is unlikely to accept such terms. Kulakowski, in turn, insists that the government cannot go back on the contracts it drew up with the investors. (Puls Biznesu, pp.16,40) M.K.