Polish president airs concerns on EU budget

BRUSSELS - Newly-minted Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski on his first foreign assignment in Brussels on Wednesday (1 September) urged the EU to keep funding the union's poor regions in the next budget period.

"I am a constant supporter of handling the next budget proposal in such a way as to preserve the EU's existing values, through maintaining the current method of financing the cohesion policy and equally through keeping the current basis of assistance for farmers," he said.

Asked by Polish media if EU commission President Jose Manuel Barroso gave him cause for comfort during the pair's meeting, he answered: "I will be reassured once the budget has been adopted."

For his part, Mr Barroso said: "The commission will of course remain committed to strong economic, social and territorial cohesion - that has always been our firm position."

He echoed his recent remarks in an interview with Italian daily Corriera della Serra, in which he blamed the falling popularity of the EU on member states' weak support for the union during the economic crisis, saying that the Lisbon Treaty can create a "new era" of "deepening integration" but only "if, of course, all European states co-operate."

Poland, many of whose regions fall well below the EU average in terms of GDP per capita, has benefitted to the tune of €67 billion of cohesion fund allocations in the 2007 to 2013 period.

EU talks on the 2014 to 2020 period are expected to gather steam after a commission budget review paper due in late September. Poland, which is to take up the rotating EU presidency in late 2011, will chair EU-wide discussion on more detailed commission budget proposals due next April.

Commission sources have indicated that richer EU states may push for a "re-nationalisation" of cohesion funding, in which each EU country pays for its own poor, or take money out of the cohesion basket, which mostly benefits post-Communist and south-lying EU regions, due to pressure on national budgets in the post-crisis period.

Mr Komorowski, from Poland's ruling, pro-EU Civic Platform party, took up office in August following snap elections caused by the death of his eurosceptic predecessor, Lech Kaczynski.

He mentioned fostering closer EU relations with post-Soviet countries on the EU's eastern border and taking a leading role in talks on joint economic governance as Warsaw's other EU-related priorities.