Madam, - While discussing the New Financial Perspective (NFP) of the European Union for the years 2007 - 2013, many members of the EU (but not Ireland) forget the real meaning of European solidarity. The British Presidency's recent proposals are not good for Poland, especially if we look at them from the perspective of the new EU members, who remember Britain as one of the strongest proponents of EU enlargement.
The biggest losers would be the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, who would lose up to €14 billion of the €160 billion earmarked for new roads and environmental schemes. Enlargement was not just an act of moral justice and a gesture of goodwill.
Ten new countries accepted, after painful reforms, the standards, regulations and rules of the EU - our participation in the single market enabled an easy access to huge Central European markets for companies, banks, farmers, estate agents and other entrepreneurs from EU-15: these are concrete profits for investors, not charity.
We cannot imagine the NFP being deprived of that great value of European solidarity and assistance to the new members that need major development efforts.
We would not like to see the question of the EU budget cause the most serious crisis in the history of the enlarged EU. Poland and Ireland, as well as 18 other members of the EU, decided in June 2005 to accept the proposal prepared by the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU - not without reservations, and painful choices, but with full understanding that we need compromises and concessions, if we want to create a coherent, strong and united Europe that would be able to play a proper role in global affairs, and act decidedly, in unison, for the good of Europe and the world.
With €60 billion for the EU's 10 new member countries, as proposed by Luxembourg, Poland would be able in seven years to significantly catch up with Western Europe, in terms of infrastructure and environmental protection, which are matters of vital importance for Poland's development, and for Europe.
In Poland we are united in our position to see a just, fair and balanced budget of the EU - a sign of this was a joint statement of the prime minister, K. Marcinkiewicz, from the ruling centre-right party PiS, and President A. Kwasniewski, for years close to Polish social democracy, now in opposition.
We will do our best to get a good deal at the European summit in Brussels, using the new British proposals as a starting point. There is room for negotiations, more realism and solidarity. The EU needs the new budget as soon as possible, so it can start planning for 2007.
Poland needs to know how much it is likely to receive from Brussels, so that we might start planning how to use the funds wisely to become a second Ireland in Europe. - Yours, etc,
WITOLD SOBKÓW, Polish Ambassador, Embassy of Poland, Dublin 4.