The Prime Minister in Brussels

First of all, ensure that for two years the country is run by a politician who is disliked in nearly all member states. Next, relegate him to political opposition and then head off to Brussels. Everything else will follow.

From Warsaw with love

The first visit to Brussels by new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk can be summed up concisely - delight. European salons are simply glad that the unpleasant and confrontational Jarosław Kaczyński no longer heads the Polish government. It is ironic that Tusk can largely credit his warm reception to Kaczyński, who was reviled in Europe.

The new Prime Minister knew precisely how to use his personality and charm to stoke enthusiasm and build trust among European politicians. In many questions which are fundamental for Poland he remained a hard negotiator, but did it with charm. He often said nearly the same things as Kaczyński but used completely different body language and turns of phrase than the head of the previous government.

Kaczyński operated in Brussels like the proverbial bull in a china shop. The hosts, with fear in their eyes, followed his every ungainly and ponderous move.

Tusk, in turn, came in full of charm like a dashing cavalryman. He flung himself into the arms of Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian Prime Minister, he assured himself of the friendship of the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, and sweet talked the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuela Barroso, who as though touched by a magic wand, said that "we owe the historic changes on the continent to Wałęsa and Tusk."

Same contents, different box

However, if for a moment Tusk's visit is analyzed in the cold light of day, it is clear that the Polish positions on fundamental EU issues have changed little. Tusk brought the same Polish pralines to Brussels, only this time packaged in an elegant box, which was hard to resist. He convinced Verhofstadt that the Charter of Fundamental Rights should not be applied in Poland because then it would be impossible to find the majority need to ratify the Reform Treaty. In addition, he managed to settle other matters which Kaczyński had brought to a head, and which as a result had not been resolved.

The first of these issues is the EU's support for the lifting of the Russian trade embargo on Polish meat. The second issue is the reduction of greenhouse gases. Tusk managed to convince Barroso that a too-low emissions limit could slow down the growth of the Polish economy, since in the coming years Poland can look forward to the construction of motorways, stadiums and a significant extension of the present infrastructure.

In exchange, the Polish Prime Minister promised to pay more concern to ecological matters and the protection of the Rospuda Valley, to whose defense almost the whole of Europe rushed last year.

Major victories, minor concessions

This is characteristic of the behavior of Donald Tusk's team at home and, as it turned out, abroad as well. Always during tough negotiations, it makes small and well-thought-out concessions, to convince the opposite side that the negotiations have reached a consensus and everyone has won. One such concession to the EU was the suggestion that Poland will no longer employ a "lone-warrior" policy stance.

Europe heard long-awaited, positive political signals from Tusk. The hosts bade farewell to the Polish Prime Minister, convinced that he would not strive for confrontation with Russia, and that Warsaw would not conduct its own non-EU policy towards Moscow, that the question of the missile shield should be consulted in advance with Brussels, and that the Reform Treaty will be treated as a priority in Poland.

Joanna Wóycicka is the former head of the foreign section of the Życie Warszawy and Życie newspapers and the former head of the foreign department at the Polish Press Agency (PAP). j.woycicka@hotmail.com