The EU budget summit is being widely viewed as a victory both for Poland and for Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who immediately after the budget summit said, “This is one of the happiest days of my life. I don’t think I will ever be able to do something like that for Poland again.”
 

Even though Europe’s financial framework for 2014-2020 projects budget spending at €960 billion, some €38 billion less than in the previous seven-year plan, Poland managed to get as much as €105.8 billion (about zł.441 billion), over €4 billion more than it was given in the 2007-2013 budget.

Later, at a press conference, Mr Tusk explained that the new budget “is not the result of one-night tactics but of the strategy of the last five years.” According to the prime minister, this strategy involved effective supervision over how EU funds are spent and selecting the right people for the job.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski called the new financial framework “a belated Marshall Plan for Poland” that would enable the country “to finish the physical modernization of Poland, the building of roads, rail and scientific infrastructure, and will be a chance for us to catch up,” he said in an interview with Polish Radio.

Words of joy and praise for the prime minister resounded in Polish media for days. “Prime minister triumphant,” wrote financial website Money.pl, “Big bucks for Poland…” read Gazeta Wyborcza’s headline. Almost immediately after the summit Mr Tusk announced he would soon start touring Poland, conducting public consultations to find the best uses for the EU money.

Poland gets the biggest piece of the cake

Poland will be entitled to €72.8 billion from the cohesion policy funds, which is an increase from the €69 billion in the 2007-2013 budget, and to €28.5 billion from the agricultural fund, which is €1.6 billion more than in the previous seven-year period.

The new EU budget is in fact advantageous for many, mostly for the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, who advocated strong austerity measures and succeeded in chopping off a big chunk of the EU budget. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has managed to do away with the looming threat of the EU becoming a “transfer union” with southern countries relying on German tax money to stimulate their crisis-ridden economies. British Prime Minister David Cameron came out victorious in maintaining concessions negotiated in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher. 

Among the biggest losers are France, Italy and Spain. French President Franćois Hollande wasn’t coy about his disappointment at the agreed budget proposal. When asked if this was the budget he wanted he openly admitted, “I would say if I were alone, no, it would have been different,” and admitted at a press conference that he felt it was his responsibility to agree to the best possible deal France could get in the difficult European situation.

There were some long faces in the CEE region, too. Neither the Czech Republic nor Hungary fared as well as Poland did in the latest budget proposal. The funds that the Czech Republic will receive is set to fall by over €6 billion, while Hungary’s slice of cohesion policy funds shrank by 20 percent in comparison with the 2007-2013 budget.

Getting the European Parliament on board

Poland seems fully entitled to celebrate its big win. Provided the European Parliament, whose votes are known to have been somewhat unpredictable at times, doesn’t take it all away in one fell swoop.

Among MEPs there are those who predict problems with the adoption of the budget, which, according to the Lisbon Treaty, must be ratified by a majority in the European Parliament. European Parliament President Martin Schulz called the budget proposal “the most backward budget in the history of the EU,” and even threatened to hold a vote by secret ballot so MEPs would be more willing to break from their official policy line dictated by their prime ministers.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy warned MEPs against treating the matter too lightly and said that “the survival of whole regions and communities is at stake here.” He added, “You should really think twice before rejecting the budget.”

The Polish government does not, however, believe the European Parliament will be particularly interested in vetoing the EU budget. 

“I believe the European Parliament may change a few details and these changes are likely to be beneficial for Poland,” Minister of Finance Jacek Rostowski told TVN24, adding that “they will be less about the levels of funding … and more about the conditions.”

Poland’s opposition parties are less optimistic about the future of the EU budget. “It’s not a done deal,” said Law and Justice’s member Witold Waszczykowski in an interview for Polish Radio. “Some European Parliament deputies are already talking about vetoing [the budget]. There could be a problem adopting it,” he added.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Tusk has said he is hopeful that negotiations under the Irish EU presidency will lead to approval of the EU budget in the spring – in a form which is optimal for Poland.