Poland does not want any changes in EU treaties

[Jaga]

Poland will reject changing EU treaties
By Reuters 5/29/15 at 11:46 AM

europe.newsweek.com/poland-will-reject-changing-eu-treaties-327936

Poland will be very firm in its talks with Prime Minister David Cameron over the situation of Polish immigrants in Britain and would reject changing EU treaties, ministers from the Eastern European country said.

Cameron was in Warsaw on the second day of a whirlwind European tour to try to drum up support for EU reform. He has promised to secure a settlement before giving Britons an EU membership in-out referendum by the end of 2017.

One of Cameron's key demands in the renegotiation is cutting welfare payments to EU migrants in Britain. Around 800,000 Poles live in Britain, as well as many other Eastern Europeans.



"We want Great Britain to stay in the EU. But the interest of Poles, our citizens who live in Great Britain is important," Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna Schetyna told public broadcaster TVP1 on Friday.

"It's a question of the joint market, these are basic questions. We understand the British stance. But there are alsoEU fundamentals on which joint Europe was forged. It will be a tough conversation, but very firm on the Polish side."

Cameron met Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz on Friday morning and is then due to head to Berlin for talkswith German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"As far as treaty changes are concerned or the introduction of discriminatory measures, that would be a red line forPoland, Poland's Minister for European Affairs Rafal Trzaskowski told the BBC.

"If every country comes with a shopping list to change European Union policies, that will be the end of the European construction, it will simply implode."

Volker Treier, deputy chief executive of Germany's chamber of commerce and industry, expressed a similar view. He told the BBC Merkel should not offer Britain concessions because it would encourage other countries to demand changes to their terms of membership.

[karl]

I believe although not exactly named, is an issue the UK is having with EU rules of Eastern European migrants in the UK with not only what is stated as: Welfare payments. But this extends much further into the aspect of unemployment payments to Polish workers who have left The UK for their homes in Poland and are unable to find a job. Since their last place of employment was in the UK and their pay deductions were payed into the UK benifit programme, they then are elgible to collect benifts from their respective accounts.

Not mentioned in the presentation is an adjacent sty in the eye of the Brits, is Polish emigrants living in the UK, collecting child benefits for their children residing in Poland.

In the eyes of the British accountants is not an emotional issue of being mean, but an issue of economics.

Reality as it is, is not any defense of the above, but by the rules of entry into the EU. The Brits read the fine lines of requirements and agreed with their signature, now they must obey as the remainder of EU members toe the line of requirements.

To change the rules as out lined, is likened to switching horses in the middle of the stream.

In short, the Brits made allowances for Eastern Europeans for entry into their country and participate in their work force, now they pay the piper. Until changes are made for modifications to the currant EU rules of easy access into higher pay member states, this is the way it is and will be.

Karl

[kaima]

Here is a 2010 idea on redrawing the map of Europe, published in The Economist...


Redrawing the map
The European map is outdated and illogical. Here's how it should look
Apr 29th 2010

www.economist.com/node/16003661

PEOPLE who find their neighbours tiresome can move to another neighbourhood, whereas countries can't. But suppose they could. Rejigging the map of Europe would make life more logical and friendlier.

Britain, which after its general election will have to confront its dire public finances, should move closer to the southern-European countries that find themselves in a similar position. It could be towed to a new position near the Azores. (If the journey proves a bumpy one, it might be a good opportunity to make Wales and Scotland into separate islands).

In Britain's place should come Poland, which has suffered quite enough in its location between Russia and Germany and deserves a chance to enjoy the bracing winds of the North Atlantic and the security of sea water between it and any potential invaders.



Belgium's incomprehensible Flemish-French language squabbles (which have just brought down a government) are redolent of central Europe at its worst, especially the nonsenses Slovakia thinks up for its Hungarian-speaking ethnic minority. So Belgium should swap places with the Czech Republic. The stolid, well-organised Czechs would get on splendidly with their new Dutch neighbours, and vice versa.

Belarus, currently landlocked and trying to wriggle out from under Russia's thumb, would benefit greatly from exposure to the Nordic region, whose influence played a big role in helping the Baltics shed their Soviet legacy. So it should move northwards to the Baltic, taking the place of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These three countries should move to a new location somewhere near Ireland. Like the Emerald Isle, they have bitten the bullet of “internal devaluation”, regaining competitiveness by cutting wages and prices, rather than taking the easy option of depreciating the currency, or borrowing recklessly as Greece has. The Baltics would also be glad to be farther away from Russia and closer to America. Amid the other moves, Kaliningrad could shift up the coast towards Russia, ending its anomalous status as a legacy exclave of the second world war and removing any possibility of future Russian mischief-making about rail transit.

Into the slots vacated by Poland and Belarus should come the western and central parts of Ukraine. Germany, with the Ukrainian border now only 100km from Berlin, would start having to take the country's European integration seriously. The Ukrainian shift would allow Russia to move west and south too, thus vacating Siberia for the Chinese, who will take it sooner or later anyway.

Next comes some reordering of the Balkans. Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo should rotate places, with Macedonia taking Kosovo's place next to Serbia, Kosovo moving to Albania's slot on the coast, and Albania shifting inland. Paranoid Greek fantasies about territorial claims from the deluded Slav irredentists from the north would evaporate. Bosnia is too fragile to move and will have to stay where it is.

Switzerland and Sweden are often confused. So it would make sense to move Switzerland north, where it would fit neatly into the Nordic countries. Its neutrality would go down well with the Finns and Swedes; Norway would be glad to have another non-EU country next door.

Germany can stay where it is, as can France. But Austria could shift westwards into Switzerland's place, making room for Slovenia and Croatia to move north-west too.* They could join northern Italy in a new regional alliance (ideally it would run by a Doge, from Venice). The rest of Italy, from Rome downwards, would separate and join with Sicily to form a new country, officially called the Kingdom of Two Sicilies (but nicknamed Bordello). It could form a currency union with Greece, but nobody else.



* A welcome side-effect of these changes will be to make space for previously fictional creations such as Anthony Hope's Ruritania, Hergé's Syldavia and Borduria, and Vulgaria, the backdrop for “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”.

[karl]

Kai

Interesting proposition with such border changes, it is not difficult to understand some would be elated whilst others very unhappy.

For one, the Finns have been a buffer for time unknown between Russia and Sweden. With this, was to lose some of their land to the Russians in the last war in the manner of conflict resolution. With the Brits, they seem to not wish to give up so easly their Island nation as exampled in the last war. For some reason, they are very resistant to that notion.

But then, to say there will not be another war in Europe is simply peeing in the wind, for our history is not very good in that manner. When war does return, it will be assured of some border changes dependant upon the choices of the victor{s} as to how much and where. who knows, we may not even exist then to complain.

Perhaps when the generals have lost all their solders, and shot up all their bullets, their tanks no longer function. Then it will be time to return to the forest, build some more dragon ships, sharpen the swords and go Viking once again. Why should every one else have all the fun?

Karl

[Jaga]

Kai,

quite an interesting map.... although I am not sure Poles would enjoy to have a rainy weather all the time... and see Ukraine to be located where Poland was....
still, I liked a funny explanations. Not sure Poles and Baltic people would be happy so close together. Lithuanians do not like Poles that much.

And Switzerland move from Alps to the Scandinavian delta?? Strange

+++The stolid, well-organised Czechs would get on splendidly with their new Dutch neighbours, and vice versa.++++

funny - Sicily and Greece forming Bordello!