A4-0148/99

Resolution on the regular report from the Commission on Poland's progress towards accession (COM(98)0701 - C4-0109/99)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to Poland's application for membership of the European Union, submitted on 5 April 1994, pursuant to Article O of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to the opinion of the Commission on this application for membership (COM(97)2002 - C4-0374/97),

- having regard to the regular report of the Commission of 17 December 1998 (COM(98)0701 - C4-0109/99),

- having regard to the Composite Paper of the Commission of 17 December 1998 (COM(98)0712 - C4-0107/99),

- having regard to its resolution of 4 December 1997 on the Communication from the Commission 'Agenda 2000 - for a stronger and wider Union' (COM(97)2000 - C4-0371/97) ((OJ C 388, 22.12.1997, p. 17.)) and its resolutions of 11 March 1998 ((OJ C 104, 6.4.1998, pp. 110 and 113.)) on assistance to the applicant countries in central and eastern Europe in the framework of the pre-accession strategy (COM(97)0634 - C4-0010/98 - 97/0351(CNS)) and the proposals for Council Decisions on the principles, priorities, intermediate objectives and conditions contained in the accession partnerships (COM(98)0053 - C4-0130/98),

- having regard to the decisions taken at the Luxembourg (12 and 13 December 1997), Cardiff (15 and 16 June 1998), and Vienna (12 and 13 December 1998) European Councils,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy (A4-0148/99),

A. whereas Poland is described in the Commission's regular report as a country enjoying stable social and political conditions that has shown unwavering commitment to reform and continued to make progress in developing an efficient market economy,

B. whereas, after elections were held in September 1997 and the new Constitution entered into force in October 1997, Poland embarked on major structural reforms, some of which became operative at the beginning of 1999, including the reform of central, regional, and local government, health care reform, and reform of the pension system,

C. whereas the Commission's regular report notes that Poland has been making great efforts to transpose Community law; whereas, however, more work needs to be done as regards internal market legislation, since there is still no system for overseeing State aids,

D. whereas further efforts are required in the areas of agriculture and the environment and to improve the efficiency of the civil service,

E. whereas Polish farmers have recently been staging demonstrations against farm imports from the EU,

F. whereas Poland is endeavouring to secure its external borders and improve border management in accordance with the requirements of the Schengen Agreement,

G. whereas Poland is pursuing an exemplary good-neighbour policy in relation to Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Slovakia,

H. whereas Poland became a member of NATO on 12 March 1999,

I. whereas the Polish Government intends to make the country fit for accession by the end of the year 2002,

J. whereas the meetings held to date by the EU-Poland Joint Parliamentary Committee, including its recommendations to the Association Council since the Commission delivered its opinion in 1997, have done much to foster mutual understanding and will continue to assist the preparations for accession,

1. Welcomes the rapid progress made in 'screening' the acquis communautaire and the start of the negotiation procedure;

2. Takes the view that the administrative, social security, and health care reforms already in force and the projected reform of the educational system will help to bring the related Polish legislation in this areas into line with the acquis and enhance Poland's ability to benefit from Phare projects;

3. Maintains that a higher proportion of Phare funding should be used to finance social measures as part of the restructuring which has begun in the coal and steel industry;

4. Takes the view that, if the viability of the Polish steel industry is to be preserved, steel production will have to be cut back drastically over the next few years, beyond the level being proposed in the present government plan;

5. Calls on the Commission and the Polish Government to counter the social costs associated with the process of economic and financial restructuring with enhanced social and economic accompanying measures, in order to permit balanced economic growth from a social point of view; supports the German Presidency proposal to extend the scope of the Phare programme to the social field;

6. Considers it necessary to press swiftly ahead with privatisation of large State-owned enterprises, especially in the energy, steel, chemical, defence industry, sugar, and distilling sectors, both to increase the competitiveness of the above industries and also to afford greater financial latitude for modernisation of social security and health care;

7. Believes that thoroughgoing structural reform of Polish agriculture is a vital need, since the sector poses a serious social and regional problem in terms of rural development;

8. Advocates socially and ecologically sustainable structural change in Polish agriculture in terms of encouraging farming which is more environmentally compatible and energy-conserving and therefore more favourable to employment;

9. Calls for an increased volume of investment to be channelled into rural regions in order to create new jobs and develop the processing industry; considers that basic facilities need to be improved, for instance as regards training for school leavers, health services, traffic routes, and the provision of water mains, so as to enable new industries to set up in country areas;

10. Acknowledges that there has been some investment in the environment but a substantial outlay is still required in order to deal with municipal sewage, pollution of the Baltic Sea, and air pollution; therefore considers close cooperation with the international financial institutions to be essential and renews the calls it made in its resolution of 15 January 1999 on the new prospects of the European Union in exporting technology and services for the use of renewable energy ((Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 3.)) for more intensive environment-related technology transfer to the Central and Eastern European countries;

11. Points out, as regards environmental legislation and its implementation, that there is much lost ground still to be made up in the fields of chemicals, noise emissions, air, and water;

12. Welcomes the fact that new administrative and supervisory machinery has been set up to manage Phare funds and calls for further efforts to improve the efficiency of the civil service;

13. Calls on the Commission suitably to involve decision-makers at regional and local level in the budgeting and management of Phare and ISPA funds and in that way also to facilitate cross-border cooperation between Phare countries;

14. Draws the Commission's attention to the fact that Phare funds will best promote models of development through partnership in the regions bordering on the EU if they are deployed in conjunction with Interreg;

15. Stresses the need, as with all applicant countries, to strengthen anti-corruption measures;

16. Welcomes the information campaign on accession to the EU that the Government is planning to stage in 1999 and, in spite of the high social costs being exacted from many people by the modernisation and preparations leading up to accession, urges the Polish Parliament (Sejm) to continue to communicate a pro-European attitude to the public;

17. Advocates that representatives of the parliaments of the applicant countries be permitted, over and above the existing exchange of information and ideas in the joint parliamentary committees, to attend meetings of European Parliament committees as observers when matters relevant to accession are being dealt with;

18. Reiterates its belief that each applicant country should be judged on its own merits and on its progress within the accession negociations;

19. Calls on the Council and the Commission, in cooperation with the Polish Government, once screening has been completed, the negotiating platforms fully worked out, and the second regular progress report published in autumn 1999, to draw up a specific timetable for the accession negotiations and their possible completion;

20. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the European Council, the parliaments of the Member States, and the Polish Government and Parliament.

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