Poland blames states breaching EU pact for crisis

(PRAGUE) - Current European Union president Poland on Friday faulted fellow members who have violated the 27-nation bloc's stability pact for the ever-deepening eurozone crisis.

"I believe the blame for the crisis should fall where it's due, on those who broke the stability pact, and it wasn't us," Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said after meeting his central European counterparts in Prague.

"To cure you of a malaise, we have to be clear about the causes," Sikorski said as he criticised EU countries which have violated the pact's public debt and deficit ceilings while others had to endure deep cuts to meet accession requirements.

"Some of our countries have made very painful sacrifices to fix their economies" before joining the EU, he said after meeting his Czech, Hungarian, Slovak and Slovenian counterparts.

The five post-communist countries all joined the EU in 2004. Slovakia and Slovenia are also members of the eurozone which is now in the throes of its worst-ever crisis.

Poland holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency until the year's end.

"We are not in the eurozone but we are obliged to become part of the eurozone," Sikorski said, referring to an obligation rooted in the EU accession treaty.

"We want to join but this crisis is not making it easier," he added.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, forming the so-called Visegrad group, met with Slovenia to discuss progress in EU accession made by western Balkan countries such as Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.

"Europe will not be whole and free until all the Balkan countries are part of the EU institution," Sikorski added.

His Slovak counterpart Mikulas Dzurinda praised Serbia and Montenegro for their progress.

Besides, "we have the first success story in this region -- Croatia," which is due to join the EU in mid-2013, he added.

Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, the host of the meeting, admitted the crisis might have an impact on the enlargement process.

"When there's less money, everything gets slower -- in this sense the crisis might have an impact," he said.