WARSAW (dpa) – Polish farmer Janusz Mystowski is worried that membership in the European Union could spell disaster for his dairy farm.
“It doesn’t look rosy at the moment,” says the 61-year-old who has spent the 13 years since communism’s demise transforming his small family farm in the northeastern village of Mystki into a viable business venture.The source of Mystowski’s gloom is a recent European Commission negotiating proposal on farm aid for newcomers to the European Union after enlargement expected in 2004.The Commission’s plan calls for farmers from Poland and nine other future members to have access to only 25 per cent of the direct aid given to their western neighbours in 2004, 35 per cent in 2006 with the prospect of full subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) coming as late as 2013.“Entering on these terms would be a farce. It’s a blueprint for unfair competition which will ruin Polish farming,” Mystowski fumes.Within the context of Poland’s antiquated agricultural sector where only 800,000 of 1.8 million farms sell their produce, Mystowski is an innovator. After 1989 he realized the small-scale holding which had provided food for his family through the lean years of communism would have to grow in order to earn a livelihood in capitalist times.Mystowski increased his holding to 25 hectares in a bid to provide year-round feed for his herd and doubled his milking stock. He’s proud to note that he squeezes nearly 100,000 litres out of his 16 Holstein-Friesians annually.Most importantly though, Mystowski has spearheaded Mlekovita, an 8,000-member cooperative dairy in nearby Wysokie Mazowieckie. The dairy generates a whopping 600 million zloty (165 million euro, 143.5 million dollars) in sales per year.Having gained the E.U.’s seal of approval in 1999, the farmer-run dairy also exports 8 per cent of production to the E.U, mostly in the form of powdered milk to The Netherlands and Germany.Officials in Brussels say they would like to see more operations like Mlekovita in Poland, but according to executive director Dariusz Sapinski, business is already suffering due to competition from heavily subsidised E.U. imports on the Polish market.“I can see two fair remedies: equal subsidies for everyone or no subsidies for anyone,” Sapinski says flatly.The idea is echoed by Mystowski and farmers’ unions representing owners of some 800,000 farms who have worked hard to carve out a market niche for their products, with negligible state aid.They also argue that if Poles are to receive only partial E.U. subsidies, increased production quotas or protective tariffs must be introduced to give them a fighting chance to compete in Poland and western Europe after enlargement.Aside from unfair competition threatening to put enterprising Polish farmers out of business, analysts in Warsaw are also pointing to the hidden danger posed by a steady stream of E.U. farm aid to Poland’s one million subsistence farms which have failed to enter the agro-foods market.Direct subsidies for these peasant farmers who eke out a meagre living on tiny plots of land would amount to little more than social assistance, analysts contend.Instead of spurring desperately needed restructuring, farm aid of this kind would stifle modernization and so serve only to perpetuate the vicious cycle of chronic rural poverty.Gearing up for the official start of farm sector talks in Brussels this June, Poland’s leaders have rejected the E.C. subsidy proposals as “highly unsatisfactory”.They are also seeking strength in numbers by mapping out a joint strategy for negotiations with fellow E.U. candidates the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.Poland’s Agriculture Minister Jaroslaw Kalinowski puts the dilemma in stark focus.“If entry on these terms would mean a worsening of income conditions, we have to ask ourselves the question: why should we enter?”Commentators warn that a poor result in the negotiations risks undermining the current 60 per cent support for E.U. accession. The result could be a “no” vote in a national referendum planned for 2003.They also note that enlargement without Poland, the largest of the 10 candidates in the membership queue, would be a strong blow to the fundamental ideals and values behind the project of European unification.Like most Poles, Janusz Mystowski has mixed feeling about his country’s bid to join the European club. But weighing the costs and benefits he draws a sobering conclusion.“Let’s be realistic. Entering the E.U. will be difficult, but not doing so would be even worse,” he says.“Poland can’t remain an island, that would really destroy us.”
