{"id":10982,"date":"2017-03-10T18:01:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T18:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/eu-summit-poland-cries-blackmail-over-subsidies\/"},"modified":"2017-03-10T18:01:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T18:01:19","slug":"eu-summit-poland-cries-blackmail-over-subsidies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/eu-summit-poland-cries-blackmail-over-subsidies\/","title":{"rendered":"EU summit: Poland cries blackmail over subsidies"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Polish PM Beata Szydlo at the summit - 10 March\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/DE08\/production\/_95104865_038403359-1.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  EPA<figcaption>Image caption                                      Poland&#039;s PM Beata Szydlo fears being left behind in a multi-speed Europe                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Polish PM Beata Szydlo has accused the French president of trying to blackmail her country, in a row over Thursday&#039;s re-election of EU leader Donald Tusk.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of an EU summit, she said it was unacceptable for Francois Hollande to threaten to stop funds because Poland was &quot;not behaving properly&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Poland had tried but failed to stop Mr Tusk&#039;s re-election, and refused to endorse the summit&#039;s joint statement.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Szydlo also warned partners Poland would not accept a multi-speed Europe.<\/p>\n<p>She said the EU faced new divisions if stronger nations tried to integrate more among themselves at the expense of weaker ones like Poland and fellow ex-communist countries in the east.<\/p>\n<p>Friday&#039;s talks in Brussels focused on the future of the post-Brexit EU. <\/p>\n<p>EU members discussed making a joint declaration that should stress EU unity when they meet in Rome on 25 March.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  AFP<figcaption>Image caption                                      Mr Hollande is said to have been involved in a confrontation with Polish officials at Thursday&#039;s dinner                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Poland&#039;s failure to endorse the summit joint statement reportedly led to a confrontation over dinner on Thursday evening, with Mr Hollande saying that richer Western nations were helping to pay for Poland&#039;s development.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;If someone says &#039;you&#039;re not behaving properly so you won&#039;t get the money&#039; - that&#039;s unacceptable,&quot; Ms Szydlo told a news conference on Friday.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tusk row leaves Poland isolated in EU<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Britons &#039;should keep EU rights&#039; post-Brexit<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Getty Images<figcaption>Image caption                                      Theresa May was at the summit on the first day                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When the idea of an EU celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding Treaty of Rome in the Italian capital was first mooted it must have seemed like a good idea. <\/p>\n<p>Now Brexit casts a long, dark shadow over those proceedings - an organisation that has known nothing but steady expansion is about to lose a member state for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>That is a confidence-sapping thought for an institution which has no firm timetable for planned future expansion in the Balkans.<\/p>\n<p>There is no big idea on offer from the European Commission - just a palette of five vague outlines of how the EU will work in the future. The moment does not feel right for grand visions. <\/p>\n<p>Then there is the Polish government&#039;s anger at the re-election of their fellow-countryman Donald Tusk to a top job at the European Council. Poland - a huge beneficiary of EU funding - suddenly feels as though it might take the place in the European awkward squad that the UK is vacating.<\/p>\n<p>Poland is the biggest net recipient of EU funds - in 2015 it got \u20ac13.4bn (\u00a311.7bn; $14.2bn) from the EU.<\/p>\n<p>The EU budget will come under huge strain when the UK - one of the biggest net contributors - leaves.<\/p>\n<p>The row came after Poland failed to block the reappointment of Donald Tusk as European Council president - a key strategic role in the EU.<\/p>\n<p>This meant there was no consensus on the joint statement. Controversially, the conclusions - normally an expression of EU unity - came instead from Mr Tusk personally.<\/p>\n<p>A long-running feud between him and Jaroslaw Kaczynski - the nationalist guiding the Polish government - caused the debacle.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile there is new momentum behind the idea of EU members moving at different speeds. France, Germany and Italy back it - but Poland is adamantly against.<\/p>\n<p>Poland and its neighbours fear being left behind if their stronger partners integrate in more areas, especially the eurozone.<\/p>\n<p>When the 27 EU leaders meet in Rome they will mark 60 years since the launch of the European Economic Community with the Treaty of Rome.<\/p>\n<p>But soon the UK plans to trigger Brexit, the first withdrawal of a member state, a process fraught with risk and uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: &quot;I don&#039;t like Brexit because I would like to be in the same boat as the British. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;The day will come when the British will re-enter the boat, I hope. But Brexit is not the end of the European Union, nor the end of all our developments, nor the end of our continental ambitions.&quot; <\/p>\n<p><a rel='nofollow' href=http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-39232136 target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright EPAImage caption Poland&#039;s PM Beata Szydlo fears being left behind in a multi-speed Europe Polish PM Beata Szydlo has accused the French president of trying to blackmail her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}