EU eyes new era in ties with Poland after vote

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union looked for a new era of strong cooperation with Poland on Monday after a pro-EU centre-right grouping beat the ruling party of the Euro-skeptic Kaczynski twins in a parliamentary election.

Diplomats and officials said they expected a government led by the election-winning Civic Platform to close the chapter of mistrust between Brussels and Warsaw and put the country firmly on the path to adopt the euro currency.

"Poland is turning a page from introspective, conservative nationalism to more open, liberal Europeanism," said Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal group in the European Parliament, presenting a view expressed privately by many in Brussels.

Martin Schulz, chief of the parliament's Socialist group, said: "Poland's future lies in working closely with their European friends rather than adopting anti-European positions at virtually every opportunity."

Partial results from Sunday's election in Poland showed the Platform won more than 41 percent of the vote, compared with 32 percent for the Law and Justice party of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his brother, President Lech Kaczynski.

"I am confident that there will be a fruitful cooperation with the next Polish government," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

As a sign of change, the Platform's EU expert, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, said Poland would embrace the Charter of Fundamental Rights, part of the EU's new treaty from which the current government had negotiated an opt-out last week.

The Kaczynski government had feared that the charter, which enshrines broad human and labor rights, might one day force Poland to ease its strict anti-abortion law.

NO MORE VETOES?

Diplomats said they expected Poland to stop blocking the bloc's policy initiatives, as has frequently been the case under the outgoing government, which said it needed to protect the country's national interests.

"The new government will hopefully reform public finances so as to use strong economic growth to lower the budget deficit and put Poland firmly on the path to join the euro," said a Commission official, who asked not to be identified.

EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia has criticized Poland for not doing enough to bring its deficit below a 3 percent of gross domestic product ceiling, which is also a criterion to join the euro zone.

The Platform plans to bring Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, into the single currency area in 2012-13.

EU diplomats also hope Poland's foreign diplomacy will improve after the Kaczynskis purged almost everyone in the Polish administration who had any experience of European affairs -- career civil servants and ambassadors.

Since the Kaczynskis won power in 2005, Poland has tried to block major sugar and VAT reforms, defied the EU's cod fishing ban, derailed plans to celebrate a day against the death penalty and negotiated exemptions from the bloc's new reform treaty.