Polish leadership learns to live with the EU
On the face of it, the new Polish government’s approach to the European Union could not be clearer. Warsaw’s tough line in the recent EU budget negotiations and in current disputes over banking regulation and VAT would seem to be irrefutable evidence of a country deliberately flexing its diplomatic muscles.Diplomats from other member states sense an awkward new mood in Warsaw. Even if the Law and Justice leaders have not sworn oaths at the altar of Euroscepticism, the signals they are giving out are distinctly prickly. Much depends on Warsaw’s priorities. At the same time as fighting two disputes with Brussels, Polish officials are preparing plans for enhancing co-operation on a matter of great interest to Poland, energy security.
Warsaw wants an EU-wide energy pact to protect individual states, especially vulnerable countries in eastern Europe, from political pressure from Russia, the EU’s biggest energy supplier. Mr Smolar, who supports such ideas, says: “The government cannot treat the EU as a series of separate items – some where it wants integration and others where it does not. It needs to link these things together.”
No comments:
Post a Comment