Fears of EU rift after Macron’s ‘arrogant’ swipe at Poland
French president criticised after suggesting that Warsaw was ‘heading to the margins’ of bloc
EMMANUEL MACRON risked creating an East-west rift in Europe yesterday after warning that Poland was heading for “the margins” of the bloc.
Poland hit back by suggesting that the French president was “arrogant”, inexperienced, and had no right to push it around. The spat came after Warsaw categorically rejected Mr Macron’s drive to overhaul the so-called “posted workers” directive – a controversial EU rule enabling companies to send temporary workers from lowwage countries to richer ones without paying local social charges.
Speaking in the Bulgarian coastal city of Varna, Mr Macron said: “Poland today is not a country that can show Europe the way, it’s a country that has decided to go against European interests in many areas.
“Europe was built on public freedoms that Poland is infringing today. The country is placing itself on the margins of Europe’s future history,” he added, saying it had “isolated itself ”.
Mr Macron had already prompted Polish ire recently by warning it could not treat the EU like a “supermarket”.
Beata Szydlo, the prime minister, hit back by saying: “Perhaps his (Macron’s) arrogant comments result from lack of political experience.”
Mr Macron was on the final leg of a three-day tour of eastern and central Europe to drum up support for reforming the directive at a Brussels summit on Oct 19-20. The French president is under pressure back home to prove he is making progress with his pledge to build a “Europe that protects”. Next Monday he will host the leaders of Germany, Spain and Italy for talks, as he tries to enhance France’s leadership in Europe. Wealthier EU nations say the posted workers rule leads to unfair competition on labour markets and undercuts local workforces. Nearly 300,000 such workers are in France, mainly in the building industry and transport. Backed by Vienna and Berlin, Paris now wants the duration of these job postings to be limited to 12 months, half the period proposed by the European Commission.
A series of Brussels-warsaw clashes over migration, the environment and the rule of law have led to EU capitals losing patience with Poland, and to make matters worse, relations with Germany took a recent blow after members of Law and Justice, the governing party, raised the issue of getting reparations from Berlin for wartime damage.
Witold Waszczykowski, Poland’s foreign minister, told Radio Maryja: “Instead of forcing the French economy to compete, President Macron has come up with the idea to limit our activities on the common market.”
In a pointed move, Mr Macron chose to ignore Poland on a tour that took in the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, despite it being by the far the biggest and most economically significant state in the region.
The French leader’s pugnacity comes as his popularity has dipped at home as his government embarks on labour reforms. Philippe Martinez, whose CGT union has called for strike action on Sept 12, said Mr Macron was treating the French “like imbeciles”.
SIR – I frequently use the A1, which is mainly a two-lane dual carriageway. I have suggested to my MP that lorries should be banned from using the outside lane, on some sections, as they are, for example, on the N10 in France.
Yesterday I read (report, August 25) that we are seriously conducting trials of driverless lorries moving in convoy.
I spend many miles sitting patiently behind a commercial vehicle overtaking another one while travelling half a mile per hour faster. I have known it take 10 minutes to complete the overtaking manoeuvre.
If we have a convoy overtaking another convoy, how many miles and minutes will I then spend viewing the back end of a trailer with a number plate bearing no resemblance to the prime mover towing it.
There are frustrating times ahead for the car driver, I fear.
Sutton-on-trent, Nottinghamshire
SIR – If the Government really wants to reduce road congestion, then it merely needs to restrict the movement of any vehicle with a trailer to the hours of 8pm to 6am each day.
Peterborough
SIR – How many drivers are left frustrated when, due to view-blocking lorries, they miss their motorway exit?
Platooning will only aggravate existing problem on our motorways.
What would make far more sense is to divert freight on to the rail system, resulting in far safer roads and reduced accidents, death and injury. Sir Gavin Gilbey Bt
Dornoch, Sutherland
SIR – I see one benefit of three lorries driven in tandem on a motorway: it would mean two fewer lorries taking several miles occupying two lanes in order to overtake each other.
There is already a method of coupling freight vehicles controlled by one driver, with environmental benefits, and the possibility of electric traction. It’s called a railway.
Norwich
SIR – With driverless cars and now driverless lorries, how can Southern rail still be locked in dispute with trade unions over driver-only trains?
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
SIR – How will hitchhikers fare with driverless lorries?
Aughton, Lancashire