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POLAND

Date of release: April 29
Released in: Zycie Warszawy
Link: click here
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They want EU

The majority of Polish businessmen support Poland's EU accession. But only a few of them know about the regulations in the EU.

Polish businessmen should not be surprised when new rules apply after the opening of the Polish market on May 1st, 2004 - the date when Poland should become a member of the European Union. A first step in the preparations was the presentation of the accession's bid in 1994. The next step was the beginning of the negotiations four years later, and finally the last one was the fixing of the date of Poland's accession to European Union on May 1st, 2004 - says Jaroslaw Pietras, Under-Secretary of State for the Office Committee for European Integration, about the preparations of Polish companies to accession to European markets. A debate on the how and if Polish companies will manage EU accession was organized by the weekly magazine "Polityka" at the presentation the 10th edition of the ranking of the 500 largest companies in Poland. The opening of Polish market should not come as surprise to the Polish business community.

However, it will be a shocking experience for them, as the knowledge of EU legislation is still very low - expects Mr. Pietras. From a surveys conducted by the Polish Chamber of Commerce and Pentor Institute, it results that only 8% of businessmen know all about the legislation regarding their industry sector. Only 7% have assessed the cost of the integration of their business in the EU. 60% of businessmen haven't started any preparation for EU accession yet. 44% of company representatives stated that they are not informed about EU law. Over 40 percent of businessmen foresee an optimistic future for their own companies. Despite the lack of knowledge on the European market and its rules as many as 82% of businessmen opt for the integration with EU.

The Pentor survey has shown that it's the small and medium enterprises that fear the integration into European market.

These companies worry about e.g. competition and the lack of funding for investments made necessary by the membership in EU. One third of businessmen expect unemployment to increase as companies may close down under an increased market pressure. In the contrary, it will be the European businesses who are worried about the threat coming from the new member states; it is them who fear the competition from Polish companies, suggests Dr Robert Gwiazdowski, the expert from Adam Smith Center. The driving force of the Polish economy will be the small and medium sized business - he adds.