Brussels, 01/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - Poland supports closer European integration, including on foreign and defence policy, but solidarity between rich and less well-off member countries must be maintained and EU cohesion policy must continue beyond the 2007-2013 multi-annual budget framework, new Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski stressed in Brussels on Wednesday 1 September, where he met President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek. “We expect the EU cohesion fund to be maintained … It is so important to make solidarity real, to make development levels more equal,” said Komorowski, whose country is one of the main beneficiaries of regional aid. Speaking to press after his meeting with Barroso, Komorowski also argued for the retention of direct aid to farmers in those member states which joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. The moment chosen by the Polish president to make his call for solidarity was not without significance. The Commission is due to bring forward a communication on the mid-term budget review on 29 September. This review, which will cover all aspects of EU expenditure and revenue, including the common agricultural policy (CAP) and cohesion policy, was decided in the inter-institutional agreement which set the 2007-2013 multi-annual financial framework. The review will then provide the starting point for negotiations, due to begin in 2011, on the basis of a Commission proposal, on the next financial framework, for 2014-2020. In the light of the budgetary constraints that all governments face at the moment, talks are expected to be difficult, and cohesion policy and the CAP could very well find themselves in the sights of net contributors, several of which are calling for a freeze - or even a reduction - of the European budget. Alongside the Polish president on Tuesday, José Manuel Barroso promised to defend European solidarity. “I count on the support of Poland for the very important idea of European solidarity, because, without solidarity, we do not have a real Union,” he said. Barroso also defended the cohesion policy. “There should be no doubt about the position of the Commission, my own position. I have been fighting all my life for the cohesion policy,” he stated.
“Active participant in deepening European integration”. In sharp contrast to the Euroscepticism of his predecessor, the late Lech Kaczynski, Komorowski called for closer and deeper integration, in particular in energy, foreign policy and defence. These, along with the Eastern Partnership, will also feature among the top priorities of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers in the second half of 2011, he said. “Poland wishes to return to the role of an active participant in the process of the deepening of European integration, not only by implementing the Lisbon Treaty, but also by thinking about new initiatives ahead of us,” he declared. “The EU definitely needs new impulse, ideas and new energy and I hope that it will come with the Hungarian and Polish Presidencies next year,” said EP President Jerzy Buzek after his meeting with Komorowski. The Polish president also called for a geographical balance with the staff of the new EU diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service (EEAS), and announced his intention to “revitalise” cooperation with France and Germany within the Weimar Triangle. (H.B./transl.rt)