Dateline Warsaw - David Cameron, migration and 'welfare cheats'

Presented by Peter Gentle

Welcome to Dateline Warsaw where journalists chew over the top news stories. We devote the whole of the show this week to the heated row between the UK government and Poland, Bulgaria, Romania et al following Prime Minister David Cameron’s plan to change rules on EU migration.

In the studio I have Wall Street Journal’s central and eastern European bureau chief Marcin Sobczyk and the UK Daily Telegraph’s central and eastern European correspondent Matthew Day.

And on the line from the Bulgarian capital we have Milena Hristova, editor-in-chief of the English language novinite.com web site, otherwise known as the Sofia News Agency.

A junior coalition partner MP has called for Poles to boycott Tesco supermarkets in Poland following Cameron's plan to withhold child benefits friom some Polish migrants working in Britain.

The boycott call came as Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, spoke with David Cameron for 40 minutes on the telephone, Wednesday.

Minister for European Affairs Piotr Serafin said that David Cameron told Tusk that "he did not intend to stigmatize Poles who work in the British Isles" when he called for changes in EU rules on welfare benefits.

Donald Tusk responded however that "regardless of intentions" he could not accept the remarks, adding that the government would block any attempts to change EU law on migration within the 28-nation bloc.

The row comes after Bulgarians and Romanians gained full rights to work in the UK as of 1 January, with some UK media warning of another "tsunami" of immigration from eastern Europe.

But if Cameron cannot change EU policy unilaterally, then what's behind his attack on Poles and others rights to move freely within the union and claim benefits, which are theirs by right?

And who has gained most from Polish migration to the UK - the Brits or the Poles?