Poland Takes Pride in Assertive Stance Toward Neighbors
By MARK LANDLER New York Times
WARSAW, Dec. 18 — Poland is on the outs with much of Europe these days, but to judge from the defiance of its top officials, opposition leaders and ordinary Poles, that suits people here just fine.
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The country has been in a chest-thumping mood since last weekend, when Poland and Spain broke up a summit meeting on the new European constitution by refusing to yield to demands by France and Germany that they accept a new, less favorable voting system for the European Union.
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"Poland needs to stand up for itself," said Katarzyna Lukomska, 40, a midwife who was shopping for a winter hat this week. "We can only stand to gain from it in the long run."
That is very much a matter of debate. Europe's paymasters, led by France and Germany, are petitioning to freeze the union's budget — a move seen by some as a form of payback to Poland, which expects to be a prime recipient of European aid after it joins the union in May.
Yet even the threat of financial retaliation has not dented the enthusiasm of Poles for the hard line taken by their leaders. Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who arrived at the summit meeting in Brussels in a wheelchair, nursing injuries from a helicopter crash, has reversed a downturn in his political fortunes.
While the dispute centered on the arcane question of how to apportion the voting rights of the different members of the union, it has laid bare deep-seated feelings of resentment and insecurity, as well as a new assertiveness, on the part of Poles.
Despite a population of 39 million and by far the largest economy in Central Europe, many here fear that Poland will not be treated as a full partner in a greater Europe.
"We keep seeing ourselves as a small country," Danuta Hübner, the minister for European affairs, said in an interview. "In fact, Poland is a big country. We are half of what is joining Europe in terms of population. We should have the responsibilities that come with being a big country."
Such talk is heard more and more often these days. Five months before it adds 10 new countries with 75 million people, the European Union seems to be cleaving into two camps — one centered on France and Germany, the other encompassing an assortment of bantam and middleweight countries.
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This latest crisis erupted two weeks after Germany and France effectively vitiated the fiscal rules that govern the countries using the euro as their common currency, refusing to bring their budget deficits under a mandated ceiling.
For Europe's smaller countries — as well as would-be members, who are dutifully bringing their finances into line with European standards — the impunity with which France and Germany acted suggests that the union keeps a different rulebook for its biggest members.
In Poland's case, the frictions with Germany and France have been aggravated by Warsaw's staunch support of the American-led war on Iraq, which Berlin and Paris just as staunchly opposed.
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After the meeting in Brussels fell apart, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany bitterly criticized Poland and Spain, though not by name. Two countries, he said, had been "unable to change their way of thinking and acting." They had "left the European idea behind" in pursuit of their own interests.
Ms. Hübner, who is expected to be appointed Poland's representative on the European Commission next year, shrugs off Mr. Schröder's remarks with a serene smile.
Poland, she said, has little choice but to cling to the rules that were hammered out in hard-fought negotiations three years ago in Nice. Under that agreement, Poland and Spain were each awarded nearly the same number of votes as the more populous France, Germany, Britain and Italy.
Germany and France are seeking to insert rules into the constitution that would shift power back to the bigger countries, by ensuring that decisions could be passed if a majority of countries representing at least 60 percent of the union's population voted in favor of them.
"We based our prereferendum campaign on the Nice formula," Ms. Hübner said, referring to the ballot here last June in which 77 percent of voters favored joining the European Union. "It would be very difficult to have to tell people, `What you voted for is no longer the case.' "
But the lopsided margin suggests that Poles would have voted for the union, whatever the voting arrangements. Few here dispute that joining Europe will bring more benefits than costs.
Still, the Nice accord has become a touchstone. A prominent Polish opposition leader, Jan Rokita, summed up the feeling when he declared, "Nice or death" — a sound bite that instantly became a slogan.
The issue, simply put, is one of respect. People here believe that Poland, by dint of its size, warrants special treatment. Beyond that they believe that Germany, historically one of Poland's oppressors, and France, historically Poland's champion, need to be curbed.
"The Nice treaty keeps a balance between old, rich countries and new emerging countries," said Waclaw Rejdych, 43, a businessman doing Christmas shopping. "I don't want to be penalized because Germany has a much bigger economy than Poland."
But most Poles, perhaps reflecting their bruised history, fully expect that they will be penalized. "There's no question that France and Germany will use money to punish Poland," said Elzbieta Jozwik, a university student. "That's what strong nations do to weaker ones."
The immediate winner from the standoff was Prime Minister Miller, who leads Poland's Social Democrats. Mr. Miller had been plagued by scandals and swooning opinion poll numbers when a helicopter he was riding in crashed in a forest outside Warsaw on Dec. 4. The impact fractured two of his vertebrae.
He soldiered through the summit meeting, against the advice of doctors, before returning home to the hospital. In a show of support as rare as it may be fleeting, Poland's political establishment lined up behind him.
Mr. Miller told the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza that the dispute might delay the adoption of a European constitution for at least the first half of next year.
Not everybody here applauds Poland's intransigence. Marek Ostrowski, a leading foreign affairs commentator, said it was less a principled stand than a display of Poland's insecurities and pathologies.
Rather than defer to Poland, Mr. Ostrowski predicted, Germany and France will find a way to bypass it. He also questioned why Poland was so intent on cultivating an "exotic alliance" with Spain instead of working to close the gap with its natural partner, Germany.
"It serves no purpose at all," he said. "It is just an exercise in national pride to serve a domestic audience."
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