13th Economic forum of Krynica

The paper analyses issues discussed at the Economic forum of Krynica, the Polish “Davos”, dedicated to the EU’s enlargement.

The 13th Economic forum at Krynica (September 4-6, 2003) – the Polish “Davos” – was dedicated to the issue of “the European Union Enlargment: first or last stage of integration?”. The majority of the participants were either business people or of academic rank; yet also top level political personalities were present: on the Polish side, the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and a great number of Ministers and former Prime Ministers as well as guests of Poland, i.e. the President of the Republic of Romania, of Macedonia and of Croatia, the Slovak Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus and many Ministers mainly from the Eastern neighbors of Poland took part in the opening of the Forum.

Five topics dominated the debates of the Forum :

The contrast between the weakened economic situation of Europe and the American economic growth. The need to stick to strong “free market” economic policies seemed to collect all the votes (with an important nuance from the Polish Minister of Economy, Mr. Hausner, who said that foreign investments should remain under national control). France and Germany were several times quoted as the bad examples not to follow.

The need of integrating, as soon as possible, the “new neighbours” of the Union in a widely open European economic area as a prelude to their future accession to the Union. All participants, in particular the Polish political authorities, protested against the risk of the creation of a new “iron curtain”, even if it were “made out of silk” (Mr. Miller, Prime Minister of Poland) between the Union and its neighbors.

The complementarity between the strengthening of the transatlantic links, which seem to collect the unanimity as well; and the opening towards the East of the Union.

The rejection of a “two-speed Europe”. The Polish Prime Minister underlined that having an A – Europe (the one of the big countries which decide on EU policies ) and a B – Europe for the followers – is simply unacceptable.

Eventually, Poland’s ambition to play a leading part within the Enlarged Europe: to ensure that the needs for the Eastern neighbours will be well taken into account, to work on the strengthening of the transatlantic links and to promote an EU economic policy that would be an effective support of free market reforms the countries of transition have been carrying out for years, not only in structural terms (market liberalization, privatizations, etc.) but also in financial terms (increase of funds allocations for not candidate countries, increase of pre-accession funds and structural for the applicant countries and new members).

The Krynica Forum enables Poland to develop its vocation as a bridge between Central Europe and the more Eastern countries. As it has become a major rendez-vous for the political and economic elites of these countries the current members of the Union and the Commission would be well advised to be more present.

For more analyses of the EU’s enlargement process, see the

enlargement website of DREE.