POLAND NATIONAL INTERESTS AND THE EU

The most important areas where the Polish position is important are:

1. Budget and Regional Funds (Poland is the main beneficiary of the current multiannual budget)

2. Agriculture (Poland has the second highest number of farmers in the EU (after Romania) and has a major agricultural production, farmers are also an important social group in the country.

3. Macroeconomic policy (Poland is currently the 6th largest economy in the EU and aspires to join the Eurozone in due course.

4. Business (Internal market, enterprise, competition). Major focus on the SMEs and heavy industry, potentially also on services.

5. Mobility: Millions of Poles working abroad

6. Climate change and energy (Adapting the coal-based economy to carbon free production constitutes a major challenge

7. Justice and Home Affairs (trafficking is an issue)

8. Foreign and Defence Policy (Poland's aspiration to shape the EU's Eastern Policy as well as to influence transatlantic relations and defence cooperation)

Furthermore in Poland there is a strong support for the external component of EU energy security, opposition towards tax harmonization, support for further enlargement, as well as for the promotion of democracy in third countries.

Effective operation in the EU is tested by the skills to win supporters for the state's initiatives and to build coalitions. Admittedly coalitions depend on the issue. Nevertheless, there is a coalition pattern in Poland:

1. On the first level can be found the regional partners, such as Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary and the Baltic nations including Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany.

2. The second group is composed of the remaining new member states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria)

3. The third layer is relations with the largest EU members (France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom)

4. The final layer is the whole 27

The immediate priority is for Poland to run a successful presidency in the second half of 2011