The inclusion in the Polish governing coalition of two anti-European Union parties is “unfortunate” but will not prevent the country’s increasing integration into the 25-nation group, former president Aleksander Kwasniewski told Emerging Markets.
“It’s a problem. In my opinion, it’s a mistake that such a coalition was created in Poland,” Kwasniewski said in an interview yesterday. “I expect that despite everything this coalition will work properly, closely and effectively with the EU – it’s impossible to do otherwise – but it could create some unnecessary tensions.”
Poland, whose economy is more than twice the size of any other central European nation, is governed by a grouping of current president Lech Kaczynski’s Law & Justice Party together with the Self-Defence Party and the League of Polish Families. The past track records of the two minority groups, and in particular Self-Defence’s radical leader Andzrej Lepper, has caused unease in Brussels and beyond.
The government responded to Kwasniewski’s criticism by defending its aggressive stance in dealing with the EU. Poland needs to assert itself, said secretary of state for finance Jaroslaw Pietras, who likens the situation to a club into which his country has been invited only to find all the seats are taken.
“The fact is we’re fighting for a place which is already accepted for the other countries,” Pietras told Emerging Markets. He expressed confidence that investors would overlook the impression of a rift, instead appreciating the evidence that Poland is engaging fully in the EU process.
Nevertheless, tensions are apparent. In a separate interview, under-secretary of state for the economy Andrzej Kaczmarek insisted on Poland’s sovereignty in commercial issues, and highlighted the domination of the banking sector by foreign-owned companies, which the EU’s single market has encouraged.
“Sometimes problems arise with regard to businesses; there are some business cases to fix; I don’t think in Poland we have more such situations than in the other EU countries,” Kaczmarek said, at the same time rejecting claims that the government was resorting to “economic populism”.
“One of the problems we have is none of the banks are owned in Poland so it’s not easy sometimes to run our national infrastructure programmes or other programmes because there’s none of our own money there,” he said.
Both officials were keen to emphasize that recent comments by prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz that Poland’s economy will be ready to begin negotiations on joining the euro in 2009 shouldn’t be interpreted as a timetable. “It doesn’t mean it will be the same moment for joining the eurozone,” Kaczmarek stressed. Pietras noted that “technical factors” related to fixing the exchange rate would likely cause some delays in adopting the currency, and that the government is unwilling to rush to fix the main barrier to entry, its borrowing.
“Economic growth is very important. To restrict fiscal policy would be counterproductive,” he said.
While Kwasniewski, president between 1995 and 2005, blames his successor for creating an anti-euro coalition, his predecessor in the post suggests EU authorities must share some of the blame. Leaders have lost their way and are collapsing into petty bickering, Lech Walesa told Emerging Markets.
“European policy-makers either can’t or won’t answer the question of where we are going... instead of working for an integral approach in the spirit of community, we wage individual wars over subsidies,” Walesa said.
The former president attacked EU leaders for losing sight of the “universal values” of Europe and allowing debate to degenerate into squabbles over extra tax breaks, top-up payments for farmers or smaller contributions to the EU pot.