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EU newcomer, Poland, is following budget talks in Brussels with close interest. The Polish media has expressed anger at British proposals to cut EU funds to its poorer new members. But there's also surprise at the Polish government's decision to side with France. Adam Easton reports.
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Many of today's headlines focus on the new alliance with France. The Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper writes "Poland teams up with France against stingy Great Britain". Just two weeks ago, it adds, the Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, told his British counterpart Tony Blair in London, that Poland considers the UK its closest European ally. Now the paper's main headline reads, "We love the French again".
The u-turn is particularly surprising because Warsaw and Paris fell out badly over the war in Iraq which Poland supported. Then the French President Jacques Chirac said Poland had missed a good opportunity to shut up . Calling the alliance " a spectacular change of strategy ", the Rzeczpospolita broadsheet prints a translation of the joint letter the Polish and French foreign ministers sent to Thursday's Financial Times newspaper. That letter said Britain had championed EU enlargement and it should be prepared to cover its costs .
Elsewhere, a prominent opposition politician , Jan Rokita, says the government shouldn't be afraid of vetoing the budget if Poland is offered less than the 60 billion euros on the table six months ago.
Listen to the words
alliance
close relationship
stingy
not generous
u-turn
a complete change of ideas or plans
fell out
had an argument
shut up
be quiet (not polite)
a spectacular change of strategy
a very big change of plans
championed
strongly encouraged and helped
cover its costs
pay the costs
a prominent opposition politician
a well-known politician from the main party that is not in government
vetoing
refusing to accept |
