Poland changes sides
A few months ago it seemed the most durable of alliances: two Eurosceptic and pro-American nations standing up to the continent's federalists. But following unexpected election results in Poland and a fierce wrangle over the EU's budget, Britain's privileged relationship with Warsaw is being usurped by the French.
Polish politicians have not forgotten Jacques Chirac's wounding slight in the run-up to the Iraq war; the French president told the countries of central and eastern Europe that they had missed a good opportunity to keep quiet. And they know that Britain, almost alone in the EU, opened its labour market fully to the east and that maybe as many as 300,000 Poles are working in Britain.
But Tony Blair may now have lost much of the credit he gained by backing EU enlargement and relaxing restrictions on Polish workers. Britain's dependable eastern ally is no longer to be taken for granted. The Polish prime minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, welcomed Brussels journalists to Warsaw saying that he was convinced that the Polish elections "marked a new chapter" in relations with Paris, and cited as proof the gushing letter of congratulation from the French president, Jacques Chirac, to his newly elected Polish counterpart, Lech Kaczy´nski.
The Franco-Polish rapprochement began with Poland's parliamentary and presidential elections in October, which, against expectations, catapulted the nationalist Law and Justice party into power as a minority government. Law and Justice is dominated by Lech Kaczy´nski and his twin Jaroslaw, who made their names as child film stars and later played a supporting role in the Solidarity movement. Their electoral campaign was based on moral conservatism, populist barbs against Germany and Russia and dubious economic promises.
So successful was this blend that the free market, pro-business Civic Platform party—which had been ahead in the polls in both elections—was overtaken in both electoral contests.
Instead of tough economic medicine, the Kaczy´nskis promised lower taxes and a greater government role in reviving the economy; their new finance minister, Teresa Lubi´nska has attacked Tesco hypermarkets for providing "non-productive investment not needed in Poland." Meanwhile, the party has courted Poland's millions of farmers who now receive funds from the CAP.
All of which means that Chirac, in his defence of the CAP and opposition to Tony Blair's plans to cut the EU budget, has a valuable eastern ally. Because Poland is both big and poor, it would have been the main victim of Blair's original proposal. Almost a quarter of the €24bn that Britain wanted to cut would have come out of Poland's share.
The leader of Civic Platform has noticed the new government's drift towards Paris. Jan Rokita, now an opposition leader, notes that the new foreign minister, Stefan Meller, is "a well-known francophile." Meller, who is a former Polish ambassador to Paris, has all the right connections there. When quizzed recently by one journalist in English, Meller asked for the question to be put in French. He then observed that his questioner had an English accent.
Speaking Portuguese It would be an understatement to say that few tears were shed in the European commission press service at the departure of its head, Françoise Le Bail, in a recent shake-up. But what of her German successor, the brainy, multilingual and youthful Johannes Laitenberger? Laitenberger, 41, is by training a lawyer, rather than a spin doctor, and spent three years in the European council's legal service before joining the commission's competition directorate in 1999. A spell as chef de cabinet for Viviane Reding in the Prodi commission was a prelude to a job in the cabinet of the president, José Manuel Barroso.
One of the secrets of Laitenberger's success has been the fact that he speaks almost perfect Portuguese. His father was a Lutheran minister who was posted to Lisbon as the head of the Protestant church there in 1974. Although Laitenberger attended the German school, two thirds of its pupils were Portuguese and he subsequently married into a Portuguese family. Such connections have given him not only a linguistic advantage in dealing with his boss but a cultural one too. Laitenberger knows Barroso's political background in a way his predecessor never could. It may be no coincidence that the Brit in the Barroso cabinet, Alex Ellis, is also a Portuguese speaker. Little wonder there is interest around the commission in taking courses in one of the EU's less widely used languages.
From Wilson to Barroso If Brussels had an equivalent of the Tower of London, the ravens really would be leaving. After three decades in the city, John Palmer, formerly of the Guardian and latterly of the European Policy Centre think tank, is retiring from Brussels to return to a London he last knew in the era of Harold Wilson. In the 1970s the Wilson government was not really to Palmer's taste; he lent more to the International Socialists, the leading Trotskyite group of the day.
Brussels seemed to mellow his politics, even if, as the Guardian's European editor until 1997, he remained solidly determinist in his views on the inevitability of European integration. In his heyday no important press conference took place without an intricate opening question from Palmer, usually with two or three parts.
A few months ago it seemed the most durable of alliances: two Eurosceptic and pro-American nations standing up to the continent's federalists. But following unexpected election results in Poland and a fierce wrangle over the EU's budget, Britain's privileged relationship with Warsaw is being usurped by the French.
Polish politicians have not forgotten Jacques Chirac's wounding slight in the run-up to the Iraq war; the French president told the countries of central and eastern Europe that they had missed a good opportunity to keep quiet. And they know that Britain, almost alone in the EU, opened its labour market fully to the east and that maybe as many as 300,000 Poles are working in Britain.
But Tony Blair may now have lost much of the credit he gained by backing EU enlargement and relaxing restrictions on Polish workers. Britain's dependable eastern ally is no longer to be taken for granted. The Polish prime minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, welcomed Brussels journalists to Warsaw saying that he was convinced that the Polish elections "marked a new chapter" in relations with Paris, and cited as proof the gushing letter of congratulation from the French president, Jacques Chirac, to his newly elected Polish counterpart, Lech Kaczy´nski.
The Franco-Polish rapprochement began with Poland's parliamentary and presidential elections in October, which, against expectations, catapulted the nationalist Law and Justice party into power as a minority government. Law and Justice is dominated by Lech Kaczy´nski and his twin Jaroslaw, who made their names as child film stars and later played a supporting role in the Solidarity movement. Their electoral campaign was based on moral conservatism, populist barbs against Germany and Russia and dubious economic promises.
So successful was this blend that the free market, pro-business Civic Platform party—which had been ahead in the polls in both elections—was overtaken in both electoral contests.
Instead of tough economic medicine, the Kaczy´nskis promised lower taxes and a greater government role in reviving the economy; their new finance minister, Teresa Lubi´nska has attacked Tesco hypermarkets for providing "non-productive investment not needed in Poland." Meanwhile, the party has courted Poland's millions of farmers who now receive funds from the CAP.
All of which means that Chirac, in his defence of the CAP and opposition to Tony Blair's plans to cut the EU budget, has a valuable eastern ally. Because Poland is both big and poor, it would have been the main victim of Blair's original proposal. Almost a quarter of the €24bn that Britain wanted to cut would have come out of Poland's share.
The leader of Civic Platform has noticed the new government's drift towards Paris. Jan Rokita, now an opposition leader, notes that the new foreign minister, Stefan Meller, is "a well-known francophile." Meller, who is a former Polish ambassador to Paris, has all the right connections there. When quizzed recently by one journalist in English, Meller asked for the question to be put in French. He then observed that his questioner had an English accent.
Speaking Portuguese It would be an understatement to say that few tears were shed in the European commission press service at the departure of its head, Françoise Le Bail, in a recent shake-up. But what of her German successor, the brainy, multilingual and youthful Johannes Laitenberger? Laitenberger, 41, is by training a lawyer, rather than a spin doctor, and spent three years in the European council's legal service before joining the commission's competition directorate in 1999. A spell as chef de cabinet for Viviane Reding in the Prodi commission was a prelude to a job in the cabinet of the president, José Manuel Barroso.
One of the secrets of Laitenberger's success has been the fact that he speaks almost perfect Portuguese. His father was a Lutheran minister who was posted to Lisbon as the head of the Protestant church there in 1974. Although Laitenberger attended the German school, two thirds of its pupils were Portuguese and he subsequently married into a Portuguese family. Such connections have given him not only a linguistic advantage in dealing with his boss but a cultural one too. Laitenberger knows Barroso's political background in a way his predecessor never could. It may be no coincidence that the Brit in the Barroso cabinet, Alex Ellis, is also a Portuguese speaker. Little wonder there is interest around the commission in taking courses in one of the EU's less widely used languages.
From Wilson to Barroso If Brussels had an equivalent of the Tower of London, the ravens really would be leaving. After three decades in the city, John Palmer, formerly of the Guardian and latterly of the European Policy Centre think tank, is retiring from Brussels to return to a London he last knew in the era of Harold Wilson. In the 1970s the Wilson government was not really to Palmer's taste; he lent more to the International Socialists, the leading Trotskyite group of the day.
Brussels seemed to mellow his politics, even if, as the Guardian's European editor until 1997, he remained solidly determinist in his views on the inevitability of European integration. In his heyday no important press conference took place without an intricate opening question from Palmer, usually with two or three parts.
