|
Europe frets polish nationalistic path { March 14 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7fc480a0-b388-11da-89c7-0000779e2340.htmlhttp://news.ft.com/cms/s/7fc480a0-b388-11da-89c7-0000779e2340.html
Europe frets as Poland heads down nationalist path
By FT reporters
Published: March 14 2006 18:36 | Last updated: March 14 2006 18:36
Nationalist rhetoric, economic protectionism, tense relations with European partners and now a fierce battle with the country’s central bank: Poland’s conservative government is realising some of the worst fears of Europe’s political and business leaders about Warsaw’s new direction.
The battle between Poland’s nationalist Law and Justice party government and Leszek Balcerowicz, the central bank president, is the latest incident to spread concern across the European Union.
There was widespread consternation following last year’s Law and Justice party victory, which propelled the new president, Lech Kaczynski, on to the European stage on the back of a campaign widely perceived to be populist and eurosceptic.
But the new government’s first months sent mixed signals. Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, the personable prime minister, scored a surprising victory during December’s EU budget summit in Brussels by dint of tenacious negotiating. Strained relations with France improved and the economy continued to grow strongly.
At the same time, gaffes like agriculture minister Krzysztof Jurgiel saying he was too proud to negotiate for a better deal for Poland’s sugar beet farmers, an inept battle over VAT rates, and a badly thought out programme of European energy security, which found little favour elsewhere, undercut the image of Polish competence.
In recent weeks Law and Justice, led by the combative Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president’s twin brother, has fiercely attacked doctors, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, judges and journalists as being marked by shady ties to outside interests and the communist past. But those attacks were for internal consumption and aroused little attention abroad.
But the sight of Mr Balcerowicz, well-known around the world as the architect of 1989 economic reforms that transformed Poland from socialism to capitalism, defending himself from furious deputies accusing him of breaking the law and betraying the nationalist interest have crystallised the foreign perception of Poland, and it is not positive.
Karl-Heinz Grasser, Austria’s finance minister, said: “The actions of the Polish government have nothing to do with being mature enough for Europe.”
On Tuesday, Poland’s parliament held a rush session to create a parliamentary commission to investigate the actions of the central bank and banking regulators over the last 17 years. The impetus is Wednesday’s meeting by the Banking Supervisory Commission, headed by Mr Balcerowicz, which is to decide whether to allow the merger of Bank Pekao and BPH, two local units of UniCredit, the Italian financial group.
The fight over UniCredit, during which parliamentary deputies accused foreign investors of harming Poland’s interests, has even some government supporters scratching their heads.
“I just don’t know why they’re doing this,” said Marek Zuber, Mr Marcinkiewicz’s economic adviser. “Of course, it’s not good for Poland’s image.
“It’s bad that this happened no matter whose fault it was. But I don’t think it will lead to a dramatic departure of capital from Poland or stop investment because, after all, we are in the European Union and there are certain rules we cannot break.”
The attacks on Mr Balcerowicz and on independent institutions such as the central bank and the banking commission have sounded alarm bells across Europe.
The European Central Bank has directed some of the strongest words it has ever used about a EU member state against the Warsaw government. Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, who fought his own battles against political interference as head of the Banque de France in the 1990s, argued on Monday that the principle central bank independence was of “extreme importance”, a view echoed on Tuesday by Joaquin Almunia, EU monetary affairs commissioner.
The ECB had signalled its concern on Friday when it issued a formal opinion on Poland’s proposed bank supervision law. It said the changes, stripping the central bank of many of its powers, threatened Poland’s chances of joining the eurozone.
For some in Brussels, Poland is regarded as “the new Spain”, a reference to Madrid’s habit of battling to defend its national interest – including winning a big share of European regional aid – rather than showing gratitude after its admission to the EU club in 1986.
But Poland insists it is only seeking “equality” of treatment and could argue it is not alone in trying to defend “strategic” sectors from foreign takeovers. France and Spain are currently doing exactly the same thing with their energy companies.
Warsaw also nurses a sense of grievance that it is being treated as a second-class member of the EU, a fact most brutally rammed home by the refusal of France, Germany and Italy to fully open their labour markets to Polish workers.
But when Charles Crawford, Britain’s ambassador to Warsaw, said in a spoof memo last year that Poland was “rude and ungrateful”, he expressed a privately held view of the EU’s biggest new member state that is becoming increasingly widespread in diplomatic circles.
|
|
