Poland takes over at a challenging time, with Europe confronting a debt crisis in Greece, threats to its passport-free travel zone and the rise of populist political parties in many member nations.
While Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, did not name individual leaders or countries, he criticized "egoistic national interests" and highlighted the response of politicians who put at risk the passport-free travel zone, known as the Schengen area. That appeared to include President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, who recently clashed over the movement of migrants across borders.
Mr. Tusk's comments underscored the significant change in outlook from Poland, which is by far the largest of the former communist nations that joined the European Union in 2004.
Under the previous government, the Poles were seen as a quarrelsome and difficult partner. On Friday, Mr. Tusk presented Poland as protectors of European values, and suggested that he would push against the prevailing tide in the regional bloc by arguing for a large budget, defending the right of free movement and pressing for further expansion.
In addition to completing Croatia's accession to the bloc, Mr. Tusk wants to begin membership talks with Serbia and reach a trade deal with Ukraine, all at a time when Europeans are becoming more introspective.
But Poland has remained outside the euro zone, the 17 countries that use the euro, and Mr. Tusk said he would be interested in joining only if revised rules were put in place to avoid a repeat of the Greek debt crisis. Referring to the European Union's passport-free travel zone, Mr. Tusk said he was concerned about "a kind of Euro-skepticism which is not an ideological type but a situational and behavioral one, the behavior in words and actions of politicians who say they are for the E.U., they support further integration but, at the same time, they suggest actions or decisions that weaken the community."
"Too often we see the red light, the red light of exaggerated national accents," he said, adding that the challenge was "to persuade others that the E.U. is great. It is the best place on earth to be born and live your life."
Mr. Tusk's words could hardly have been more at odds from those of his political adversaries in Poland, Jaroslaw and Lech Kaczynski, the twin brothers who at one point held the posts of prime minister and president. Jaroslaw Kaczynski lost power to Mr. Tusk in the 2007 elections. Lech Kaczynski remained president, but he was killed last year in a plane crash in Smolensk, Russia.
The brothers, who first became famous as child actors, later developed a nationalistic brand of politics that incorporated strong doses of anti-German and anti-Russian oratory. Within the European Union they sought to assert Poland's role as one of the big players, but they were seen by many diplomats as too abrasive to be effective.
Article Source KBG Test Blog (http://rc.kbg.me)
