Poland and the EU

fly_agaric

So Poland are looking to get a larger voting weight relative to Germany and are not adverse to dragging war dead into the argument!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6227834.stm

"""We are only demanding one thing, that we get back what was taken from us," Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski told national radio this week.

"If Poland had not had to live through the years of 1939-45, Poland would today be looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million."

IMO, it seems the current leadership of Poland have decided to try use the EU as a forum to further historical grievances against Germany + punish it (again) for its past.
Just as they seem willing to bring the whole EU into conflicts with the Russians because of the grudges they bear them too!

Why enter the EU at all when you are toting this amount of historical baggage?
I mean they did realise that the old enemy Germany is the big power in the EU, pays alot of the bills etc?
Are they just in it to suck some blood out of the Germans (...I know, I know - we've done alot of sucking too...)?

What do ye think about it? Should Poland have joined the EU? Now that it's in the EU should it's leaders be digging up past evils so much to try and get their way?

Owen

Poland's PM is the President's brother, and they're generally despised by the majority of the public over there. Next election they're out. I wouldn't stress too much.

fly_agaric

ned78 wrote:

they're generally despised by the majority of the public over there.

Really? I was under the impression that a lot of the young outward looking types coming here dislike their politics. However, if the majority of Poles really hate them how did they get in in the first place?

mike65

They are a couple of right wing-ultra catholic nuts as said. Poland should be slapped down but not by Germany.

Naturally.

Mike.

Mick86

fly_agaric wrote:

So Poland are looking to get a larger voting weight relative to Germany and are not adverse to dragging war dead into the argument!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6227834.stm

"""We are only demanding one thing, that we get back what was taken from us," Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski told national radio this week.

"If Poland had not had to live through the years of 1939-45, Poland would today be looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million."

It's a silly argument which should be dismissed out of hand.

Zebra3

fly_agaric wrote:

Are they just in it to suck some blood out of the Germans (...I know, I know - we've done alot of sucking too...)?

The sucking goes both ways, so don't worry to much about it.

flogen

fly_agaric wrote:

Why enter the EU at all when you are toting this amount of historical baggage?

Because we had ridden ourselves of historical baggage when we joined in '73?

I do agree with your overall point, however, that dragging up historical grievances to try and score unwarranted points is ridiculous, and it's not really something that the modernisation of the EU should hinge on.

It seems as though they're going to be very isolated on this issue, however.

Dublin's Finest

They have gone about it all wrong with the Nazi rhetoric but the point they are making as regards voting is somewhat correct. In fact, the alternative they propose - that votes be calculated in relation to the square root of member populations rather than just on outright populations - is more representative. An authoritative university study has backed this up.

They will back down eventually. They have symbolic backing from the Czech Republic but they should be allowed to find a compromise. Merkel is desperate on that count.