Poland: Lobbying Until the Very End

If Poland is to make it into the European Union, it will do so with Polish farmers kicking and screaming all the way to Brussels.

The largest and most sluggish of the EU accession candidates, Poland has had to hustle to fill entry requirements after clashing with the EU on several fronts. Chief among the problems has been Poland’s large and unwieldy agriculture sector.

At the beginning of December, the country's powerful farm lobby threatened to leave the government coalition if Warsaw didn't win more rights and subsidies for Polish farmers. The leftist government, of which the pro-farm Peasant's Party is a member, heeded the threat and rejected Brussels' sweetened agricultural package.

The most recent, and final, offer by Brussels improved an earlier agricultural aid proposal for the new candidate countries. Instead of receiving 25 percent of what current member countries receive in agricultural aid, the EU created some loopholes which would allow new candidates to receive up to 40 percent in aid.

The improvements weren't enough. At next week's final one-on-one negotiation meetings, Poland is expected to ask for bigger production quotas for its farms, more aid and faster disbursement of EU structural funds.

The issue is crucial in a country where farming employs around 20 percent of the population and takes up 60 percent of the country’s land use. Most Polish farms are small, family-style affairs that produce small amounts of produce and employ fewer people. The country’s farm lobby says the farms make up for their short-comings by being environmental-friendly and producing healthier products. But Brussels has had enough.

EU to Poland: Get Moving

Movement in agricultural sector reform "has been weak," according to an October report on Poland’s accession potential. The sector contributes less than 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The EU has demanded Poland take measures to drastically reduce agriculture’s share of the labor market and take up modern, more mechanized farming techniques.

The news has met with anger among a Polish population already paranoid of being viewed as second-class citizens. Unemployment has been high in a country once considered the economic darling of post-Soviet Eastern Europe. Around 17 percent of the population is unemployed -- and many think membership in the EU isn’t going to help anything.

Not willing to enter as second-class citizens

Polish laborers were dealt another blow recently when Brussels -- in a nod to Austria and Germany -- ruled they would have to wait seven years before being allowed to work in any of the current EU countries.

The bad P.R. has contributed to the sinking popularity of EU membership in Poland. Around 51 percent of the population supports entry, according to recent polls, down 30 percent from levels in the mid-1990s.

The recently-elected left-of-center coalition of Prime Minister Leszek Miller has worked hard to win public opinion. Signs of the West are already present in Poland’s major cities, where European store chains line blocks and American movies crowd the marquees. It is in Poland's economically depressed, agrarian countryside that Miller has more work to do.