Europe in Blogs (18): Poland, Brexit and Polexit

"The only calls for a ‘Polexit’ referendum on whether Poland should leave EU have so far come from fringe politicians on the radical Eurosceptic right. Law and Justice’s anti-federalism notwithstanding the dominant view in the ruling party remains that it is in Poland’s interests to remain in the EU and try to reform it from within."

Over at "The Polish Politics Blog", Aleks Szczerbiak looks at Brexit from the Polish perspective.

The current Law and Justice (PiS) government seems to blame EU elites for the Brexit votes, whereas the opposition sees some of the blame with rising eurosceptic voices (like PiS). Overall, however, there are very few calls for a Polexit, because Poland and Polish citizens overall benefit from the EU.

The Polish case seems interesting to me because, after Brexit, Poland's role as a sizable EU member state should only grow, while payments coming from the EU budget should rather decrease. It will be interesting to see how this can go together…

EuroparlTV: Polish voices from the European Parliament

If the video below doesn't work, you can watch it here.

Europe in blogs - Euroblogs (16): Poland

As I have said in my previous post, "All Europeans are Polish citizens today", and Euroblogs from all over the continent are reacting to the Polish tragedy that has happened this morning.*

Danish: Anne Albinus

English: Stephen Spillane (Ireland) Gabriela Ionita (Romania), EU Referendum (UK), A Fistful of Euros, Eurotribune, Jaanika Erne (Estonia), Elina Makri (Greece), Erkan Saka (Turkey), Gideon Rachman, Charlemagne, Dániel Antal (Hungary), Hanna Sankowska (Poland), Alan Fisher (UK), @ribo, Nils W Frenzen (USA), Dave Keating

French: Guillaume Klossa, L'Europe de la Défense (several posts), Olivier Kempf, Prune, Pierre Rousselin, Samuel Faure

German: Günter Vetter, Sascha Götz

Italien: Andrea Matiz

Norwegian: Dag Yngland

Polish: Konrad Niklewicz

Romanian: Corina Cretu, Menaru

Swedish: Carl Bildt, Gunnar Hökmark

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* The blog post will be continuously updated during the weekend.

©bartheq (flickr)


All Europeans are Polish citizens today.

Why Poland agreed to the milk quota regulation in November 2009

You still remember the milk quota dispute we saw in October/ November between the EU member states?

In the summary of EU Council acts of November 2009 (published Monday) I found the following statement by Poland on the Council Regulation (EC) No 1140/2009 that deals with milk quotas and that was adopted by all EU countries (with the UK abstaining) in November:

"Poland decided to withdraw its objection to the proposed document for the sake of all Member States and because of the fact that its adoption is a condition required to launch an emergency package to the amount of EUR 280 billion.

However, it must be stressed that Poland continues to doubt the legitimacy of the proposed new rules for calculating the levy payable after exceeding the national milk quota in the case of Member States applying the milk quota buy-back mechanism. The submitted proposal will lead to a decrease of the milk quota exempt from national aid in those Member States which fully use the production limits granted and, at the same time, administer the national quota buy-back mechanism.

The new rules will openly discriminate against the most active farmers who contribute to the development of market milk production.

In view of the above, Poland finds it essential to maintain the milk quota buy-back mechanism as a facultative activity which should be implemented only after an independent decision of a Member State."

I am not sure that this figured in the news at the time, but it is a proof of the pressure on member states to follow an emerging consensus in the Council, especially under time pressure, that I found worth publishing.

Erika Steinbach, leave us alone!

Erika Steinbach is the head of the German Federation for Expellees, and for years she is ruining German relations to our Polish neighbours.

Her confrontative course regarding the representation of interests of Germans (and their children) who were expelled from what would become Poland at the end and after World War II is a disgrace for us Germans who are working for a united Europe with where nobody needs to be afraid of neighbouring countries.

Steinbach has now repeated her claim that she wants to sit in the Board of the new Polish-German Foundation for Expellees that will try to retrace the fate of expellees at the end of World War II, in a way that doesn't put the emphasis on blaming each other or bringing up the idea of restitution but that focuses on the tragic stories in order to allow a proper culture of remembrance.

Yet, somebody like Steinbach who is not interested in good relations but in confrontation is embarrassing, and I can only hope that our new government will manage to keep her out of the new foundation in order to show to our Polish neighbours that in the European Union of the 21st century we Germans don't support those who live in the past but that we look ahead and look forward in expanding good relation to Poland - something foreign minister Westerwelle has made clear when he spent his first visit in office to Poland.

I am glad that although Erika Steinbach is often presented in Poland as the voice of Germans, she doesn't have much room in our own media - and I hope that our government will make clear that she would be the wrong choice for the new foundation and against the whole idea of the creating such an organisation!

The European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECRG) - corrected and updated

The "European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECRG)", isn't that the most ridiculous combination one could imagine? Mixing those who want to conserve and those who want to reform?

But it has become a truth:

The British Tories, the Polish PiS and the Czech ODS form a joint eurosceptic group in the European Parliament. This brings together three of the most important not-so-European anti-good-things parties, those who want to conserve the bad sides (like nationalism) in the European Union and reform the good ones (like working together, liberalising interpersonal relations, etc).

But since nobody really wanted to play with them (who wants to play with such a strange trio), they needed to find a bunch of individual MEPs who seem to be so unpopular among their peers that they were ready to form the appendix of their three big brothers.

And they found five six of them, from Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, and Lithuania. The theatre group is formed.

Well, this ridicules the idea of a parliamentary group, but since together they combine 56 MEPs from 9 countries [see update on figures at the end!] - more than the Greens - they do have the right to form an official faction in the European Parliament.

Will they hold together? - Probably yes, because it doesn't really hurt them to stick together and the financial and political advantages are probably higher than the losses. But still, according to the new Rules of Procedure (PDF) of the European Parliament (Article 30), they will have to keep up MEPs from at least one fourth of the EU's member countries.

However, if one of the partners says something stupid - and seeing this group it is more than probable that this will happen - the other can easily ignore it, since the national media won't notice it anyway. Being in that group will thus most likely not have any negative influence on the image of the parties. So the reasons to quit might remain lower than the incentives to stay in.

And, to be honest, I think the Union and the Parliament deserve such a strange group, which is the result of a rule made by the majority against the minority short before the elections - but a rule that is easily to circumvent by those who have the will to do it if it serves their individual advantage.

Doesn't that sound like most of the EU's regulations?

PS: Jon Worth has some more substance on this matter. Nosemonkey as well.

Correction (23 June 2009): One more MEP from Lithuania has to be included as I've learned at EurActiv.

Update (23 June 2009): Besides Grahnlaw and La Oreja de Europa who are backlinked below, Jon, Nosemonkey and The European Citizen have followed-up on the story. One of the news passing around today was that the Finnish Centre Party MEP will remain with his colleagues in the ALDE group, thus reducing the ECRG down to 55 MEPs from 8 member countries.

Lech Walesa honoured by Berlin mayor

Yesterday, former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa has received the highest honour of the city of Berlin, the Ernst Reuter badge, from Berlin's mayor Klaus Wowereit for his outstanding role in making possible the fall of the Wall in the divided city of Berlin 20 years ago.

I had the possibility participating in the honorary ceremony, and was very curious about what Mr Walesa would say, in particular since his appearance at Libertas has been very controversial in the pre-electoral period.

Starting with his role in Solidarity, making very clear that nothing that happened later on would have happened without this movement which took away the legitimacy from the Communist Party to represent the workers, he came quickly to more recent isues.

Today he spoke very pro-European, going as far as asking to think about a "European state". He promoted common solutions for common problems like building good roads all over Europe, so that "the German Mercedes would not lose a wheel on bumpy roads".

He also pointed out that it is in the interest of Germans that there is work all over Europe, because if not, people might first stop buying German cars and, if out of work for too long, would start a new revolution which would be bad for Europe. It was important for Europe not to fall back into nationalism and discrimination of minorities.

He asked Germany to take a lead in Europe, and he said that Germans were too often not aware of their importance and lacked the chance to fulfil their role. If Germany wasn't interested, he said, Poles would be glad if Germany could hand over to them. If not, Germany would have to march ahead and help to fill words like globalisation with life.

Hadn't there been the Libertas story, his speech would have been really nice. He has a funny style of speaking, very lively and conscious of his importance ("You should invite me more often, I have so much to say."), but he doesn't speak like somebody who has grown up with doing political speeches - he sounds as if he is doing it "from the gut".

In the end, after he had given all his ideas and advice, he concluded:

"Now, that you have given me this honorary badge, you should also listen and follow to what I say."

Smiled, and left the stage.

European Parliament elections 2009 (70): Interesting Polish candidates not only in Poland

Poland in the EU, a blog of the Polish journalist Dominika Pszczółkowska started in January, remarks several interesting Polish candidates for the 2009 EP elections.

That Commissioner Hübner is running for the EP has already been discussed in this blog - some saying that I was not tough enough on Ms Hübner. Not surprisingly, this went not unremarked in Poland in the EU, but Dominika has more:

• Patrick Kibangou, a Congo-born candidate without realistic chances 

• Jarosław Wałęsa, the son of Solidarity leader Lech

• French Journalist Bernard Margueritte

• and a Polish expat who will run for the French Greens in Belgium.
  

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.

Is there a Central and Eastern Europe (CEE): Polandian's NO!

Polandian wants to "kill" the term Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) because it doesn't reflect the differences between the countries summed up under this headline.

Yet, I am convinced that there is something like "CEE", and have commented in this regard to the article linked above.

German MEP Markus Ferber defends German interests

According to Falk on Twitter, the German MEP Markus Faber (EPP), number one on the 2009 EP list of the Bavarian Christian democrats (CSU; which run separately from the Merkel's CDU), has told on German radio that the German government should do politics for Germany and not represent the interests of Poland.

I don't know in which context this has been said (maybe in this one), but I would like to remind that Alexander Stubb just recently has asked for more community orientation among EU member states and Ferber's position does not sound too much in line with the ideas of the Finnish foreign minister.

In a unified European Union, Germany should well defend the interests of Poland, because Polish interests should be German interests as long as they serve the citizens of the EU. Mutual understanding and support are the basis of a Union, and therefore Germany is asked to listen as much to Poland as Poland is asked to listen Germany.

But it doesn't sound as if Mr Ferber is very much oriented towards a joint European Union!

Tracking: EP elections (XI) - supplemented

In Estonia, several high political figures are planning to run for the European elections in 2009 (or at least they are considering it). The names mentioned are Edgar Savisaar, former Prime Minister and controversial Center Party leader, Andrus Ansip, current Prime Minister of Estonia, and Siim Kallas, current EU Commissioner.

In Poland, political parties also get ready for next year's elections.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister and member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has participated in the PES (Party of European Socialists) manifesto discussion.

An Irish businessman and Labour member launched a pro-European group to inform about the EU's work ahead of the upcoming elections.

And the Greek opposition leader Papandreou confirms that the stupidities of the past will be continued in the future saying "the Euroelections will not only be a vote on the course of Europe, but they will have the character of a referendum for the government and its policies to which an end must be put".

Supplement: Dutch right-wing liberals from VVD will rally against Turkish EU membership during the 2009 EU parliament election campaign, demanding a 10-year moratorium on the issue

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Under the category "Tracking: EP elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009. So far: (10), (9), (8), (7), (6), (5), (4), (3), (2), (1).

Sarkozy announces urgent EU summit on Georgia (updated)

The German newspaper website sueddeutsche.de has just announced that French EU-Council President

Nicolas Sarkozy has called for an urgent EU-Summit on Georgia on the 1st of September (that is Monday in one week).

The summit will take place in Brussels as other sources inform.

According to AFP, "French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had warned this week that Sarkozy might convene an emergency EU meeting if Russia failed to pull back its forces from positions in the ex-Soviet republic." Actually, Poland had asked for this already more than two weeks ago.

The last extraordinary urgent European Councils I am aware of where held in February 2003 on Iraque and before on September 11th in 2001.

South Ossetia: Poland asks for urgent EU summit [supplemented]

Several sources (here and here) inform that Poland requests an urgent EU summit on the situation in Georgia.

Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski is quoted:

"[I]t seems to me that a meeting will be convened."

I think that this is in fact necessary. The European Union, the EU Council Presidency, and the member states have to prove that they can react to such a crisis, and that the Union can take a tough but pacifying stand on this war at its borders.

I also think that the OSCE, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, should do more than just issuing a statement of the Chairman (currently Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb). Usually, a statement by the Chairman means that there is no agreement between all member states - if this would be the case, it would be the Ministerial or the Permanent Council presenting a joint statement.

I know that with Russia and Georgia being members of the OSCE, an joint statement is very unlikely to come.

But what is the OSCE for if it cannot even serve its basic goal?

The Chairman's statement does not even give a clear message that the OSCE will do everything possible to help with a peaceful solution of the conflict. And the only time that the important diplomatic term "condemn" is used is in connection with the OSCE premises in South Ossetia:

"I condemn the shelling of the OSCE Mission premises in Tskhinvali. The OSCE Mission to Georgia is intensively working with all parties to defuse tensions. The Mission's work and mandate must be respected by all parties in the conflict. I am ready to increase the number of OSCE observers as soon as the situation allows."

That is not much, to be honest.

If that is the strongest we are going to see from the OSCE, the European Union really has to take over the task of providing security and organising cooperation in Europe. A possible EU summit should deal with this question, too!