One of the better efforts in recent years?
Over the past six months, Poland chaired the EU for the first time in post-soviet history, and as of January 1 the mantle of power passed to Denmark for the sixth time since it joined the union in 1973. Poland now can sum its accomplishments in the big chair, which are not as great as the country had hoped.
Poland set major objectives to promote European policy in eastern countries, a sphere in which Poland considers itself the leader. For example, the Eastern Partnership project, which aimed at cooperation with Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, was initiated in 2008 upon the initiative of Poland and was eventually supported by Sweden. However, Poland did not do all it could to promote its own project last year, as the Eastern Partnership failed to become a strong initiative, irrespective of the EUR 600 mn allocated for its implementation.
 |
| PHÎÒÎ: AP |
Poland also was unable to ensure the succes of the protracted and complicated process of signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. That said, the ultimately reason for the the defeat on Europe’s Ukrainian front can be laid at the feet of President Viktor Yanukovych. The arrest of former premier Yulia Tymoshenko created a situation whereby many European countries held back from the project when Warsaw raised the issue of integration with Kyiv. However, some political analysts believe that Poland and other EU countries could have requested Tymoshenko’s realease from jail earlier and much more effectively. Yet given Yanukovych’s irreconcilable position on this matter, such efforts would not likely have brought the desired result. One way or another, the EU branded Tymoshenko’s trial as purely political in nature.
Although the agreement that would have opened the doors for Ukraine on its path to Europe had to be approved before it was signed does not mean the decision is final. President Yanukovych decided to pull a trick during the Ukraine–EU Summit held in Kyiv in December. Political analysts believe this was intended to mislead the public. It was not the content of the agreement that was important for the Ukrainian government, rather the ceremony with lamelights and cameras. It was presumed that only the first pages would be rubberstamped to convince the Ukrainian people that the agreement with Europe had been signed.
Warsaw’s vain endavours
The trick did not work. Andrew Wilson, a senior analyst at the European Council of Foreign Relations, believes that the possible initialing of the agreement should by accompanied by EU sanctions against Ukrainian officials who are most involved in undermining the foundation of a rule-of-law state. He was referring to the prosecutors and judges who handed down Tymoshenko’s sentence. There were often differences of opinion in the approaches to the Ukrainian issue during the Polish presidency of the EU. Berlin and Paris tried to persuade everyone that the Ukraine–EU summit should not be held at all because Ukraine is violating the principles of freedom of speech and the independence of the courts. The summit might not have gone off had it not been for the Poles.
The Polish side was more successful in supporting democracies under threat. Despite resistence from France, Poland managed to create the European Foundation for Endowment of Democracy. Political consensus on this was achieved this December. This project is very important for the democratic opposition in Ukraine and Belarus, as the Foundation was created by Polish Foreign Affairs Minister Radoslaw Sikorski to support fundamental democratic principles in countries bordering the EU to the south and west.
Sikorski came up with this idea during the Arab Spring revolts, and by May it was gaining traction with the European Commission, the main executive body of the EU. After long-winded debates regarding the economic crisis in the Euro zone, Sikorski’s idea was approved by EU leaders at a summit in Brussels last June. The Foundation is a non-profit independent international institution awarding grants to NGOs, including those in Ukraine, and supporting relevant projects for the development of democracy.
Keep in mind that Poland assumed the EU chairmanship at the peak of the worst economic crisis in the history of the EU. The fundamental principles of the EU, including “solidarity”, “unity” and “community”, began losing their value, but Poland, with strong energy and the freshness of a young EU member, inspired the union with confidence and made it see the need for its existence. To wit, Poland managed to defend not only the idea of supporting EU member countries whose economies were in trouble, but also the prolongation for another two years the provisions supply program (EUR 500 mn) financed from the EU budget. This provides assistance to nearly 18 mn of the most needy citizens of the EU. The EU population is 492.8 mn. The attempts of the main EU member countries that finance the budget to curtail the assistance program were blocked by Poland.
 |
| PHÎÒÎ: shutterstock |
Eurosceptics
And now for the mostly good. Unlike a number of influential European countries, thanks to Poland’s success in backing the EU proposals to reduce the differences between the rich and poor member countries, Brussels plans to allocate EUR 376 bn to support this effort.
Georgia and Moldova are pleased that trade agreements between them and the EU have been negotiated and if everything goes well, they have good chances of entering the EU orbit. Although Romania and Bulgaria already enjoy EU membership status, they are not too pleased with the fact that they are not being granted membership to the Schengen Zone. They were blocked by The Netherlands, which is concerned about a potential wave of immigrants. Serbia also has reasons to be disappointed, since its application for the status of EU candidate member was rejected.
The decision-making process in the EU remains very complicated, as its current member countries stumble over differences of interests and confusion in relations between numerous European institutions. The fact is that the initiatives of one member country presiding in the EU are passed over to the next chair. Warsaw managed only to start negotiations with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on natural gas imports to Europe. Specifically, plans are being developed to transit gas from the Caspian Sea through the Turkey-Austria gas pipeline Nabucco, which will considerably reduce the dependency of EU member countries on gas from Russia.
“Europe is the best place in the world to be born,” said Donald Tusk at the start of Poland’s chairmanship of the EU. The Guardian wrote then that the Polish prime minister’s passionate and optimistic defence of the EU inspires Brussels after the recession precipitated by the economic crisis. Leader of the Socialist Bloc in the European Parliament Martin Schulz said that it was definitely the best presidency over the last years.
Printable version
