ISLAMABAD, April 16: The Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland, Dr Boguslaw Zaleski, described his visit as “good” and his meetings in Pakistan as “useful” during an address on his country’s perspective on the “Enlargement of the European Union” that he delivered before a select gathering at the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) here on Tuesday.

Dr Zaleski, who was here recently for bilateral consolations also met Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri and extended an invitation from his counterpart to visit Poland which was accepted by the Foreign Minister.

Poland wants to make its contribution to the enlargement and consolidation of the new, united Europe, he said. It is attracted by the EU concept of economic collaboration, designed to turn Europe into an economic powerhouse, adding that this enlargement will expand the area of stability on the European continent. The Accession Treaty was to be signed on April 16 in Athens (Greece is the current Chairman of the Union), which would be put to a referendum in early June. According to some polls 65 per cent of the population favours the accession, 15 per cent is against, and 20 per cent has not yet decided. All this must be completed in time to allow the country to join the EU by May 1, 2004.

He said Poland will have to cope with the following dilemmas: “How to combine our European priority with our very amicable relations with the United States, and how to reconcile our European focus with preservation and upgrading of our relations with the developing states.”

The visiting dignitary said that his country wanted to prevent the appearance of a new division in Europe after the present stage of the EU’s expansion. He said that his country was taking steps to activate the non-European direction in Polish foreign policy, with particular emphasis on its economic and political dimensions, despite its natural concentration on the EU.

Dr Zaleski, whose country supported the US in its invasion of Iraq with 170 men, said that the experience connected with elaborating a common European policy on Iraq has indicated that the relevant standard procedures are not yet in place.

He said that the process of the EU’s enlargement was obliterating the unnatural divisions of Europe, which were a consequence of Yalta and the subsequent ‘Cold War’. He felt that European integration could also be seen in the broader context of the integration processes taking place in the world.

He said Poland’s accession to the EU was one of the crucial goals that the Polish people set for themselves at the very beginning of the reconstruction of the political and economic system which was initiated in the country since 1989. He said that Poland had to adapt its political, economic and legal systems to the standards adopted by the EU members to become its full member. The privatization of the Polish economy and its adjustment to free-market rules progressed smoothly, though, he said, the restructuring of Polish agriculture turned out to be one of the greatest challenges and one of the most difficult problems to solve.

Some of the participants asked very searching questions including on the war that was imposed on Iraq, and the “doctrine” of pre-emption.—Mufti Jamiluddin Ahmad