'Government wants a Europe dominated by Germany' claims opposition

Chancellor Angela Merkel German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeubl; photo - EPA

Leader of law and Justice in parliament, Mariusz Blaszczak told Polish Radio this morning that recent remarks by Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski shows the Civic Platform-led government “wants to subordinate Polish politics […] to the Germans”.

"[The Polish government] wants to subordinate our country's sovereignty to EU institutions dominated by Germany,” Blaszczak said following a speech Minister Sikorski gave in Berlin yesterday, where he laid out the government's vision of the relationship between nation states and the EU.

In an article in the Financial Times Sikorski reiterates that, in the context of the financial crisis in the eurozone, he “ fears Germany's power less than her inactivity”.

“I demand of Germany that, for its own sake and for ours, it helps the eurozone survive and prosper. Nobody else can do it,” Sikorski writes.

“I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say this, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear its inactivity.”

Sikorski adds that, despite the crisis in Europe, “by the end of this parliament, Poland will fulfil the criteria of membership in the eurozone. That is because we want it to flourish. And we plan to be in it.”

The Law and Justice party's Mariusz Blaszczak told Polish Radio this morning, however, that Poland should not join the eurozone “before holding a national referendum” and envisages not as federal Europe “but a Europe of homelands”. (pg)