Minister Sikorski talking to journalists, Wednesday: photo - PAP/Grzegorz Jakubowski
“In a situation where there are uncertainties in the financial markets, in the banking system and the the eurozone, agreeing the budget would be beneficial for macroeconomic equilibrium in Europe,” Foreign Minister Radolslaw Sikorski told reporters, Thursday.
Failure to come an agreement, “could be badly received by the markets and so deepen the crisis. European leaders have a great responsibility this week,” he warned.
The crucial EU summit on Thursday evening and Friday will try to agree the budget for 2014 – 20. Richer EU nations, led by the UK, are calling for cuts, while Poland and other poorer nations – mainly from central and eastern Europe – seek to maintain funding levels, which have been crucial for their economic growth.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that the current proposals on the table - 309.5 billion euros for so-called Cohesion Funds and 364.5 billion euros for agriculture - which would mean a cut in funding for crucial development projects in Poland, are “not acceptable”, but “are acceptable as a starting point for talks."
Media blitz
Foreign Minister Sikorski, who once worked in the UK as a journalist, continued a diplomatic British media blitz this week - after an appearance on BBC television last week - when he wrote an article for the Guardian, headlined: 'For Britain, the EU is good value for money'.
Sikorski writes that attacking the level of funding for poorer countries, attacks Europe's 'Marshall Plan'.
“In Poland, 52% of all public investment comes from the EU budget. Most beneficiaries of the budget are in central Europe. This is our very own late "Marshall plan", thanks to which we may at last catch up and right the wrong that we suffered at the 1945 Yalta conference.”
On the “less moderate” stance from the Conservative government in Britain of late on EU issues, Sikorski writes: “We need more British common sense in the EU, but Britain also needs friends. An important test of our friendship is coming up.”
Cohesion policy
Poland received funding from Cohesion and Structural Funds. Poland, will a population fo 38 million, is Central Europe’s largest economy, and was allocated a total 67.3 billion euros in the 2007-13 budget – almost a fifth of the overall EU spending on development projects.
The Cohesion Fund support is addressed to member states, whose per capita gross national product is below 90 percent of the community average.
Minister Sikorski said that the 2014 – 20 budget would be the last time period when Poland would be a net recipient of funding and would in future, because of the added economic growth, then be a net payer into EU coffers.
A failure to agree a 2014 – 20 budget would be “pretty desperate” and a “nightmare scenario” says European Budget Commissioner, and Pole, Janusz Lewandowski.
“If at the November summit EU leaders fail to find a compromise on a new multi-annual financial framework [2014-20 budget] the alternative is the fixing of the EU budget, annually,” he told the RMF FM radio station.
He said this 'Plan B' is “pretty desperate” as it would “kill predictability” in the economy. (pg)