Poland takes over the six-month rotating presidency over the European Union from Hungary on Friday, with “European integration as the source of growth”, a “Secure Europe” and a “Europe benefiting from openness” being the three basic priorities of its chairmanship in the second half of 2011.
The signing of a Croatia-EU accession treaty is also high on the Polish EU presidency.
"An important objective of Poland’s Presidency in the EU Council will be to finalise accession negotiations with Croatia and sign a Treaty of Accession with it," the Polish Presidency of the EU Council has reported on its web site. The agreement should be drafted and then translated into all official languages in the 27-strong European bloc. Accordingly, the signing of the document is expected in the last quarter of this year.
Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, is the fourth former Communist country to chair the EU. Slovenia was the first former Communist country to assume the EU presidency in the first half of 2008. The other two were the Czech Republic in the first half of 2009 and Hungary whose chairmanship expires on Thursday.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski have recently announced that the main priority of the Polish presidency will be to to lead the European Union on a path to faster economic growth.
Economic growth in Europe will give impetus to other things and create more solidarity and openness to enlargement, Sikorski recently said.
Poland is the only EU member state which has not gone into recession during the economic and financial crisis.
The Polish presidency will work to foster economic growth through further development of the internal market, including the electronic market, and using the EU’s budget for building a competitive Europe.
