Poland comes into 2006 as a new force in European politics, writes Piotr Kaczynski
When the European leaders met in Brussels last December, there was virtually no one across the old continent who believed that this summit would end in success.
Before this meeting, 2005 had brought a long list of defeats for European integration: lost votes in France and the Netherlands on the EU constitution; deadlock during the June summit over the budget and constitution; no Common Agriculture Policy reform; July terrorist attacks in London; opening negotiations with Turkey with no intention of finishing them; crushing reviews of the Lisbon Agenda objectives; rising euro scepticism and speculation that Italy might leave the euro zone. No wonder no one expected anything positive. On the other hand, the very last thing Europe needed was another disaster.
Is no disaster a success? It seems that that may be the case at least for some of the EU members. Poland comes out of 2005 as an important new European actor. Internally, Poles chose a new conservative government and a new right-wing president. In Europe, the Polish position has improved a lot. It is no longer perceived as a stubborn lone fighter against the EU constitution or America's Trojan horse in Europe.
The last EU summit proved that European leaders have regained the capacity to move European integration forward. Among the most important stakeholders were - as usual - the leaders of the UK (EU presidency), France and Germany. However, the novelty was the importance of Poland, the biggest of the new EU member states with a population of 38 million (more than all the other new countries combined).
It is also one of the poorest EU countries with 18 per cent unemployment. During the budget negotiations Poland had two objectives: firstly, the bigger the budget the better and, secondly, the sooner the budget was adopted the better. After all, it is to become the biggest beneficiary of the European common budget in 2007- 2013. If the EU's most important tagline is "European solidarity", its financial perspective needs to reflect this statement.
The Polish government supported the European Commission draft budget proposal which provided for bigger member states' contributions. In June, the then Polish prime minister Marek Belka offered cuts to structural funding to Poland by way of compromise. Then, Tony Blair vetoed the budget anyway.
In December, the new Polish prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz had to face a draft prepared by the British presidency that was highly disadvantageous to new member states. It cut support to poorer countries by some 20 per cent in comparison to the June proposal.
In the end there is agreement on the common budget. All 25 member states are broadly satisfied with the result. However the outcome is most pleasing to Poland - for at least five reasons.
First, for a number of years before the 2004 enlargement, there was an ongoing debate in central Europe about the region's leadership. Does the region need a leader? If so, only Poland can fill the role. It is the biggest and politically most active country of the region. In general, smaller central European countries can better achieve their European policies objectives by keeping closer to Poland than by negotiating alone. This was the case in Brussels when Poles, together with Lithuanians and Hungarians, achieved better terms than Slovakia, for instance, which negotiated on its own.
Second, Poland is a credible partner. For three difficult years it played alone. There were differences with European partners over engagement in Iraq, the EU constitution, relations with the US and Russia, but last December Poland proved to be a reliable partner for its European counterparts.
Marcinkiewicz did not detail what he wanted in numeric form but underlined the Union's ideals and principles of solidarity. Poland has proven to be able to play at the same time independently and for the benefit of the entire Union.
Third, Poland becomes the biggest beneficiary of the financial perspective 2007-2013 funding programme with more than €90 billion in structural support. This amounts to more than 10 per cent of the entire EU budget. And fourth, the budget deal was adopted over one year before it comes into force in January 2007.
Timing is crucial in spending EU funds properly. Because of the late adoption of the Agenda 2000 programme (six months before it came into force) Spain - the biggest beneficiary of the common budget at the time - lost some two years in financing its infrastructure investments.
Finally, Common Agriculture Policy (Cap) reform.
Most commentators in Europe say the scheduled mid-term review of Cap will be an empty promise. Yet, almost simultaneously with the EU budget talks, there were World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong, where the EU Commissioner for Trade promised to cut European farm subsidies from 2013. Therefore, it seems the promised reform will become a reality in a few years.
Poland was never against Cap reform. Warsaw just wants to make sure the direct payments for central European farmers are the same as those for the western Europeans. For the moment they are reduced, but by 2013 they will be identical. Then we'll talk reform.
Piotr Maciej Kaczynski is EU analyst in the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw