Financial Times (London) | Michael Mann | February 12, 2002 BRUSSELS - Poland yesterday stepped up its campaign against the European Union's plans to incorporate new member states into its farm subsidy regime, as talks got under way in earnest on what promises to be the most tricky part of accession negotiations between the EU and its candidate countries. Jaroslaw Kalinowski, Polish farm minister, said the time had come for the two sides to hold a calm debate on the contentious issue of agricultural aid. He nonetheless attacked the European Commission's proposals as discriminatory, saying they were likely to leave the most efficient Polish farmers worse-off after EU membership than they were before. "I need to convince our farmers to vote for accession," said Mr Kalinowski, who is also deputy prime minister and leader of the Polish Peasants' party, before meeting Franz Fischler, EU agriculture commissioner. "But how am I supposed to convince them if they will expect lower incomes after accession?" Arguments over financing farm and regional aid in an enlarged EU represent the biggest potential obstacle to the successful conclusion of accession negotiations by the end of this year. Under the Commission's proposals, unveiled last month, enlargement would cost Euros 40.2bn (Dollars 34.6bn) between 2004 and 2006. Poland, the biggest of the 10 states hoping to join the EU in 2004, rejects the Commission's proposals to phase in direct aid to farmers in new member states over 10 years. Meanwhile, existing EU states, such as Germany, the biggest contributor, are already manoeuvring to keep a lid on spending after enlargement. Mr Kalinowski said Polish farmers should qualify for full farm subsidies by 2006. He accused the EU of double standards for wanting to set in stone what new members would receive for the next 10 years, when the budget for the current EU was only set until 2006. He said aid should be concentrated on those farms - around 40 per cent of farms in Poland - which produce for the market.
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