Poland signs up to EU fiscal pact

PM Tusk jokes with journalists in Brussels, Thursday: photo - PAP

UK and the Czech Republic did not sign the pact today and Ireland will put the issue to voters in a referendum.

The pact gives powers to the European Court of Justice to impose fines on rule-breaking nations and enhances the European Commission's role in scrutinising national budgets.

The final version of the pact commits member states to, "fiscal consolidation as an essential condition of higher growth and employment". The document also has a target of raising the employment rate to 75 percent on average across Europe by 2020.

Poland's Minister for European Affairs Mikolaj Dowgielewicz said Thursday that the government was making sure that all measures included in the final version of the Treaty, "in all languages", are consistent with the findings contained in the policy agreement at the European Council summit on 30 January.

At the January meeting, it was agreed that countries outside the eurozone, including Poland, should participate, at least once a year, in summits attended by the 17 eurozone members.

Poland, along with 11 other countries including the UK, Netherlands, Italy – but not Germany and France - sent a letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the head of the European Council Van Rompuy, in which they laid out a "Plan for Growth in Europe."

The letter stated that the EU should concentrate on stimulating the economy and providing jobs for citizens, and should not only be about tightening belts and cutting state spending.

Little of what was contained in the letter made it into the final draft of the fiscal treaty to be signed today, however. (pg)