Tusk pledges better Poland-EU relations

In his first press conference with international journalists, Poland’s prime minister-designate Donald Tusk has outlined his foreign-policy agenda: Closer ties with the EU as well as with Russia, but doubts over the Baltic gas pipeline and the US anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe.

Donald Tusk, who won general elections on 21 October, is due to be nominated Polish prime minister this Friday. Addressing journalists in Warsaw on 6 November 2007, two days prior to a meeting with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in the Polish capital, Tusk addressed the following issues: 

Relations with the EU: “We are the most pro-European party in Poland,” Tusk stressed. Nevertheless, he only mildly criticised the sometimes rowdy way his predecessors in government, led by the twin brothers Lech (President) and Jaroslaw (Prime Minister) Kaczynski, dealt with EU partners: “Poland’s priorities in its relations with its neighbours and with the European Union have remained stable since 1989,” Tusk said. “The past two years did not really change these priorities but the way of doing things was not very effective in achieving Poland’s goals.” 

In particular, Tusk stressed the need for better relations with Germany: “Relations between Poland and Germany don’t need a radical breakthrough, but rather an increase in mutual trust,” he said, adding: “I would like relations to get back to the level that we saw in the early 1990s, when the treaties were signed and symbolic meetings took place.”

Relations with Russia and Baltic gas pipeline: Tusk said that, over the two years of the Kaczynski reign, there had been “more tension than necessary” between Poland and biggest neighbour to the East, pledging “an effort to build trust on both sides”. Sill, he spoke out negatively against the project of a Baltic undersea gas pipeline linking Russia with Germany: “This initiative, this project, has not been prepared well,” Tusk said, adding: “I hope and I hear some signals that in the nearest future the sponsors of the project would be ready to seriously correct it.” Tusk declined to provide any more detail on this issue. 

Relations with the US, the Iraq war and US strategic missile defence shield: Tusk is currently in a struggle with the Kaczynksis over his nomination of Radoslaw Sikorski, a sometimes outpoken critic of US policies, as foreign minister. He stressed, however, continuity in the pro-American stance that his predecessors in government had chosen: “Civic Platform and the future government are going to very consistently continue the Polish strategy of close ties with the United States. There aren’t going to be any surprises.” 

Tusk added however, making reference to Poland’s 900 troops in Iraq, that his future government wants to “change the character of our presence in Iraq”. He hinted that there is a price to pay for Poland’s readiness to discuss both its Iraq engagement and the missile shield: “If we are to increase US security, we should expect a financial contribution to increase Polish security,” Tusk said.

Tusk toned down on the Kaczynskis’ emphatic endorsement of the US project of a strategic missile defence shield in Esatern Europe: “I am perhaps more sceptical, and the president (Lech Kaczynski) a more declared supporter of missile defence,” he said, adding: “If we decide, jointly in talks with our partners in the European Union and NATO partners, that this isn’t an unambiguous project, then we are definitely going to think it over (…) then we will be open to negotiations.” 

Tusk’s Civic Platform centre-right party won the 21 October elections with a landslide victory over the Kaczynski twins’ Law and Justice (PiS) party, supposedly ending the two-year reign of EU sceptics in the country, which only joined the Union in 2005 (see EURACTIV, 22 October 2007). 

He is currently in an advanced stage of coalition talks with the much smaller and pro-EU Polish Peasants’ Party (see EURACTIV, 31 October 2007). 

Tusk will have to seek compromises not only with the junior partner in the government, but also with Lech Kaczynski, who will remain president. 

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