Poland won't sign EU fiscal deal if shut out: PM

(WARSAW) - Non-eurozone Poland will not sign a planned new treaty on tightening budgetary discipline unless the currency bloc gives it a role in the accord, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Thursday.

"Poland must be included in the decision-making process regarding the actions and running of the compact, and unless we see that we're guaranteed a real role, we will not sign it," he told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Tusk said he had informed "all those concerned", adding that he had spoken to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the EU's executive body, the European Commission.

Tusk's comments came ahead of talks Monday between leaders of the 27-nation European Union.

The meeting is due to consider ideas for boosting economic growth and reducing unemployment while also agreeing a so-called fiscal "compact" to tighten budgetary discipline and economic governance between the 17 eurozone nations.

The compact, the aim of which is to avoid a repeat of the debt crisis in the eurozone, is expected to be agreed in principle Monday before formal acceptance at an EU summit on March 1 and 2.

Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, has insisted repeatedly that non-eurozone members should have their say on deals within the currency bloc, given that most aim to join it.

"Poland will stick firmly to its demand that European unity be maintained. The compact must not lead to an ingrained division of the European Union into two clubs, those with the euro and those without," Tusk insisted.

"That would be bad for Poland and bad for the rest of Europe," he added.

Eurozone versus full EU talks are a sensitive topic for some governments, notably France, which refuses to grant access to the 10 non-eurozone EU member states more than once a year.

Poland's European affairs minister, Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, said in Brussels that talks on the issue were continuing.

"Decisions taken by the eurozone impact on all member states of the European Union, particularly those which will join the eurozone. It's therefore logical that these countries should get invited to meetings," he added.

With 38 million people, Poland was the largest ex-communist economy to join the EU in the bloc's "big-bang" expansion of 2004.

As a result, it has sought increasingly to punch its weight in EU talks.

In addition, it has been the only EU member to avoid recession during the global economic crisis, leading it to argue that its voice must be heard.

Poland has vowed by 2015 to meet EU-set criteria for adopting the euro, but its centre-right government has adopted a wait-and-see attitude towards switching from the Polish zloty.

With major trade partners such as German inside the eurozone, Poland is also keen to ensure the currency bloc emerge healthier from its grinding debt crisis.