POLAND:President Lech Kaczynski of Poland is to head a new government commission to woo back the estimated 1.2 million Poles who have emigrated in recent years.
The emigration, primarily to Britain and Ireland, of so many highly-skilled workers has left gaps that the Polish economy is struggling to fill.
That brain drain will be a key issue in next month's snap election, an issue Mr Kaczynski's prime minister brother Jaroslaw is anxious to be seen to be addressing.
"Our main goal is to get as many of them as possible to come back to their homeland," said Mr Kaczynski.
The commission of politicians and non-governmental organisation officials will have its work cut out: a recent survey suggested that nearly half of the estimated 200,000 Poles living in Ireland do not intend to return home.
In addition, other EU countries have begun lifting work restrictions to new EU members, increasing the employment choices for Poles.
Mr Kaczynski said a package of initiatives would be presented in the next six months to make it easier for Poles to move home.
Measures will include job fairs, additional consulates and increased networking between Polish schools at home and abroad. Word needs to spread about the booming Polish economy, he said, which is expected to grow by up to 7 per cent this year. Wages are rising in some sectors and the unemployment rate has dropped from 17.6 to 12.2 per cent in the last two years. Critics attribute rising wages and a dropping jobless rate to the growing skills shortage and mass emigration.
Meanwhile, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has said he is optimistic that Polish concerns over the new EU treaty can be addressed, clearing the way for an agreement at next month's summit.
That summit, days ahead of the Polish general election, follows the stormy June summit when Poland agreed to give up some of its existing influence over decision-making. Polish ministers said later that they had received a verbal assurance that a new mechanism would be created to allow delays in decisions just short of enough votes to block them.
"There should be no political, possible problem there," said Mr Barroso in Warsaw yesterday after meeting the Kaczynski brothers. "I think it is possible to find technical solutions that will respond to the concerns of all the member states."
Mr Barroso said Poland's elections would not be an obstacle during the summit. "We are 27 countries and there is almost always an election going on. If we block our decisions because a country is having an election, we would never get anything done."