DONALD TUSK: POLAND HOLDS ITS OWN

Attending the forum in Davos the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Donald Tusk gave an interview to the First Channel of Polish Television. First he noted that the presence of Polish delegation at the forum was an opportunity to emphasize the stability of Poland during the global financial crisis. According to the interviewee, talking to forum’s participants he feels that today partners take Poland seriously. They start noticing that during this economic storm his country is holding its own.

Attending the forum in Davos the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Donald Tusk gave an interview to the First Channel of Polish Television. First he noted that the presence of Polish delegation at the forum was an opportunity to emphasize the stability of Poland during the global financial crisis. According to the interviewee, talking to forum’s participants he feels that today partners take Poland seriously. They start noticing that during this economic storm his country is holding its own.

Mr Tusk stressed that in the course of different negotiations he tries first of all to solve concrete problems. The people he talks to are those politicians who will determine Europe’s and Poland’s gas security in the main. Hence he meets the Prime Ministers of Turkey and Qatar as well as the President of Azerbaijan. Naturally, the main point of talks is gas and, first of all, the project Nabucco.

Talking about the ways out of the crisis, Mr Tusk noted that unlike some other states that tend to borrow money Poland doesn’t do that as far as it has a balanced budget and is able to reduce budget deficit instead of increasing it. That is why Poland is taken rather seriously at the forum.

Mr Tusk believes, at present one and all say that immense indebtedness and increase of budget deficit won’t lead to the desired effect. The first thing to remember is that during such crisis those who increase budget deficit will quite soon, in some months, realize that this money doesn’t augment while budget deficit is growing. If one wants to finance budget deficit which requires 50 billion zlotys missing in Polish treasury, one will have to borrow this money which means to sell state securities, in practice, plunging every citizen into debt. Thereupon, the Prime Minister of Poland stressed that if he were a cynical politician and searched for some “political air defence” then he would be increasing budget deficit and dispensing money. And in some months the Poles would say: “Look, he is crazy!”

Answering the question concerning unemployment in Poland, Mr Tusk cited Great Britain as an example where 600 000 people have lost their jobs for the last two months. This year unemployment rate in Spain will reach 16%; it will increase in the USA as well. In 2009 Poland won’t avoid this negative trend either but in comparison with other countries the unemployment scale will be much smaller.

Regarding the forthcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin, D.Tusk said that during the year of his administration Polish government didn’t stop making calm attempts to make the relations with Russia better despite existing circumstances. He expects that while talking about the future of Russian-Polish relations he will see a responsible partner in Mr Putin. This, according to the politician, requires first of all the change of Russian attitude. He believes that Russia and Poland can “make a good business” but it should be a fair play without an intention to get something greater than a joint interest. He is going to ask Putin openly whether the latter is ready for such a dialogue, as an equal with equal: “In Russian-Polish relations we are not going to yield or to be cornered. Not now”.