OPINION:The incoming Polish presidency of the EU will not be about less integration
FOR THE first time Poland takes over the presidency of the European Union today. Inheriting the presidency in mid-2011 looks like a mixed blessing. “EU success story” gets some 600 Google News hits. “EU crisis” gets 14,000 hits.
What has gone wrong? Some people have a blunt answer: “Too much Europe!” EU structures and policies are said to be creating more problems than they are solving: over-complex institutions, over-ambitious integration (above all the euro zone), over-centralisation of decision-taking. We see a disturbing decline in confidence in European solidarity.
But for Poland, European integration is not a crisis. It’s an inspiration.
Twenty-two years ago when communism ended, Poland’s GDP shrank by 12 per cent. Inflation ran out of control. Key export markets vanished. We had to build a modern democracy and a thriving market economy from scratch, while disentangling ourselves from the Warsaw Pact.
With huge efforts – and generous help from our European partners – we have succeeded. Poland is growing at over 4 per cent per year. We are now the sixth largest economy in Europe, and one of the top 20 economies in the world. Poland is the only EU member to have maintained positive growth through the recent economic storms.
It is no surprise that surveys find Poles expressing strong confidence in the EU. All our success would not have been possible without the investment in institutional stability and solidarity which the EU delivered.
It is not enough to be optimistic and positive. We also must be realistic. The EU faces painful decisions.
Poland will not accept that the answer lies in less solidarity, or less integration. That is the sure path to disintegration.
Too many of Europe’s rules and regulations were designed for different times. We will be pressing the case for smarter integration, to release the full potential of the single market and make Europe competitive.
An EU-wide common sales contract, cheaper roaming services and a better EU patent regime would transform the way we do business across Europe.
National governments are facing financial constraints, so Europe must use its resources wisely but with no less ambition. The “Europe 2020” strategy requires a budget that maintains investment in a common future and makes the Common Agricultural Policy more efficient. Europe needs smarter energy policies that reconcile production, supply and distribution with environmental concerns.
The wider context is dramatic. As we haggle over our internal problems, hundreds of millions of people look to the EU for hope.
This is not an easy challenge. Warsaw is the seat of the EU’s borders agency, Frontex. We want to empower the agency to help support member states when migration pressures get acute, as in the southern Mediterranean.
Our presidency should also see Croatia’s accession negotiations completed, and new progress made with Turkey and Iceland.
We will work to set up a new framework for co-operation with Russia. We also want to see the EU-Ukraine association agreement signed, paving the way for a free trade area. We will push to advance association agreement talks with Moldova. And we will do what we can to help Belarus, now slumping into difficulties after years of mismanagement.
Poland made steady strides towards its current success thanks to outside engagement. By investing in solidarity a growing, open and secure Europe will deliver results, and set yet more examples to other countries starting their own transitions.
As prime minister Donald Tusk said last year on receiving the Charlemagne prize: “We Poles really believe in Europe.” We will invigorate Europe with our faith.
Radoslaw Sikorski is Poland’s foreign minister