Brussels, 18/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek repeated his country's firm opposition to Germany and Austria's demands of negotiating - in the context of enlargement negotiations - transitional periods to temporarily limit the free movement of persons (and, notably, workers) of the future Member States of Central and Eastern Europe, following their membership of the EU.
To request a seven-year transitional period, as Chancellor Schroeder recently did, is exaggerated and such a period would be "much too long", Buzek declared to a small group of journalists a little before meeting Commission President Prodi and Commissioner Verheugen in Brussels. Mr. Buzek also spoke out against the idea, put forward recently (including by Mr. Verheugen) of a "flexible" temporary regime, the nature and scope of which could vary from one Member State to the next (taking account, notably, of realities in Germany and Austria), from one candidate country to the next (Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are more concerned by this problem than the Baltic States) and from one economic sector to the next (certain industrial or craft sectors in the EU's border regions are genuinely threatened by the arrival of cheap labour, others need additional labour). "We attach great importance to the principle that, in the Union, everyone its treated equally, wherever they are. This principle has not to be breached", Mr. Buzek stated.
"The Polish position is to say that there must be no transitional periods. For now, we are waiting for the Commission's formal proposal to Member States (in the draft common position that the Commission has announced for April). We expect this proposal to be quite different to Chancellor Schroeder's request", said Mr. Buzek. According to him, the fears of some EU member countries are "greatly exaggerated". "I do not expect many Poles, on accession, leaving for Germany or elsewhere in the current Union (…) We even expect an evolution in the other direction", that is to say, "the return of Poles from abroad or the arrival of citizens of the future enlarged EU in Poland," the Prime Minister pointed out.
Mr. Buzek also reiterated his country's ambition of concluding accession negotiations on no less than 11 chapters in the course of the Swedish Presidency, and finalise negotiations as a whole on all 31 chapters by the end of the year. Regarding the environment, the Polish Government intends adopting all the acquis communautaire by the end of the year, even though implementation of part of the legislation will demand transition periods. As soon as Poland is a member of the EU, additional funds from the Cohesion Fund and other programmes will enable it to progress much faster in implementing the acquis, he believed.
Mr. Buzek also reiterated that Poland, as major transit country, would like to be involved at the highest level in on-going talks between the EU and Russia on increased deliveries of Russian gas and oil to Europe.