ANALYSIS: Warsaw obliges itself to build European Union's 'Berlin Wall' (08/25/02)

ANALYSIS

Warsaw obliges itself to build European Union's 'Berlin Wall'

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Newsline

Poland has concluded the Administration of Justice and Internal Affairs Chapter in its European Union accession talks in Brussels. Warsaw pledged to beef up control of its 1,200-kilometer border with Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, Belarus and Ukraine to prevent illegal migration, as well as smuggling of goods and trafficking of drugs and arms, after Poland joins the EU. Some Western media commented that Poland's obligations under this negotiation chapter - the country's 26th closed chapter - are tantamount to erecting a new "Berlin Wall" on the country's eastern and northern frontiers, which are expected to become the European Union's external frontiers as early as January 1, 2004.

Poland's obligations under this chapter involve a serious overhaul of its border guards and, understandably, mean making sizeable expenditures from the state budget. Interior Minister Krzysztof Janik said in a recent press interview that in order to qualify for joining the Schengen agreements, which may take place around 2007, Poland needs $250 million euros ($245 million U.S.) to refurbish its border guard force and infrastructure. Mr. Janik hopes that up to 75 percent of this sum may be covered by various EU funds and programs.

In early August Poland committed itself to increasing its current border-guard force of some 12,000 servicemen and civilians to 18,000. By 2006 the country will increase the force by 3,200, hiring 5,300 professional frontier guards and 1,000 more civil servants, while phasing out 3,100 army conscripts who are currently deployed.

The government plans to buy and equip seven helicopters and two light aircraft for the border guards, as well as night-vision surveillance devices and other necessary equipment. The number of frontier watchtowers will be increased in order to space them at a distance not exceeding 20 kilometers.

Poland's accession to the EU will, of course, mean tougher restrictions on travelers from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Warsaw will introduce visa requirements for them as of July 1, 2003. At present, nobody is able to imagine the scale of technical difficulties or the political and socio-economic consequences of this upcoming operation.

Chief EU negotiator Jan Truszczynski said last year in Brussels that in 2000 Poland was visited by 5.9 million Belarusians, 2.8 million Russians and 6.1 million Ukrainians. The same year, Mr. Truszczynski added, Polish consulates all over the world issued only 185,000 visas.

According to the Warsaw-based government-sponsored Center for Eastern Studies, 4.4 million individual trips across the Polish-Russian border were made by Poles and Russians in 2000. Some 90 percent of these visits, the center asserts, were made by people engaged in petty cross-border trade, which primarily means smuggling of alcohol, cigarettes and other goods.

Such cross-border business is the main source of livelihood for hundreds of thousands, if not for millions, of people in both Poland and the three above-mentioned post-Soviet countries. When Poland tightens its eastern and northern borders, there will unavoidably occur "local economic disasters" in the border regions of the four countries. As for Poland's eastern and northern regions, they still may hope for some assistance from Brussels under various development and restructuring programs. But who will help people living under the penury of the Lukashenka and Kuchma economies? And what about the Kaliningrad region with its highest rates of criminality and HIV infection in all of Russia?

Poland officially advertises its role as a promoter of European integration values on post-Soviet territory - particularly in Ukraine and Belarus - but it is hardly believable that it will be able to perform this role seriously after the line of European prosperity and affluence moves some 600 kilometers eastward and becomes a new "Berlin Wall" for Belarusians and Ukrainians for a decade or longer.

It is clear even today that not only Poland but the entire EU will not be able to influence transformation processes in the "forgotten Europe" - Belarus and Ukraine - if Brussels focuses on tightening Poland's frontiers and fails to draw up attractive and comprehensive programs to make Belarusians and Ukrainians maintain their hope that some day they also will find themselves in Europe, not only geographically, but also politically and economically.

Jan Maksymiuk is the Belarus, Ukraine and Poland specialist on the staff of RFE/RL Newsline.

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