Polish government and European Commission endorse a paper setting out economic policies Poland intends to pursue to prepare for EU accession

Brussels, 10/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - Mr Krzystof Ners, Undersecretary of State at the Polish Ministry of Finance, and Mr Giovanni Ravasio, Director General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission, signed on Thursday a "Joint Assessment of Economic Policy Priorities of the Republic of Poland", as part of the Accession Partnership process. The paper presents an agreed set of medium-term economic policies necessary to further Poland's economic transformation and to prepare it for accession to the European Union.

The joint Polish government/Commission document complements and adds detail to other documents already adopted in Warsaw to prepare for EU accession from both the economic and institutional/legal points of view. The new document sets out the measures deemed necessary along with a quantified macroeconomic scenario for 2000/2002 (expansion, inflation, public debt, etc.) based on full and timely implementation of the measures outlined. It will therefore be possible to evaluate regularly the progress obtained, an exercise that prefigures Poland's subsequent participation in the process of the coordination of economic policies, which already exists in the EU.

Two scenarios are described, namely:

• A passive scenario based on the announced measures with no other policy changes;
• An active scenario involving new measures to: a) change the pension system in the agriculture sector; b) streamline the public sector; c) increase the efficiency of the taxation system. This second scenario would enable Poland to achieve the following performances:
• Average growth of 6% per annum, matched with controlled inflation;
• Investment growth of 13% per annum (compared with 4.5% or 5% a year in the passive scenario);
• Balanced public finances by 2002. The current deficit would remain high (almost 5% even after 2002) but would be financed in large measure by long-term capital, attracted by the reforms and, if possible, by tax cuts.