Poland chides Finland, other EU members, over Russia deadlock

Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Friday hit out at Finland and fellow members of the European Union, blaming them for sparking Poland's veto of crucial talks with Russia.

"We accepted the Finnish proposal for a declaration allowing each party to break off the negotiations between the EU and Russia at any time," Kaczynski told reporters. "But when we asked to have it in writing, we were refused. So it was just an unconfirmed verbal proposal."

Finland, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the 25-nation EU, had been trying to break the deadlock preventing the launch at a summit in Helsinki on Friday of talks on a new EU-Russia economic and energy accord.

But frantic diplomatic efforts, including direct talks last weekend between Kaczynski and his Finnish counterpart Matti Vanhanen, failed to convince Warsaw to budge.

Poland's veto was prompted by a Russian ban on Polish meat and plant imports on food safety grounds and Moscow's refusal to ratify the Energy Charter Treaty, an international agreement on energy investment and transport.

Poland alleges the embargo is groundless and a purely political attempt to undermine the country's 14-month-old conservative government, which has proved wary of Moscow on a number of issues.
Kaczynski chided Poland's fellow EU members for what he said was their failure to support Warsaw since Moscow imposed the ban a year ago.

EU members were "told from the beginning" about Poland's problems with the Russian embargo, Kaczynski said.

"We discussed it with the Finns, with our other European partners such as Germany. But the EU only decided very late to step in."
Source:henews.com.pk