Press reviewed by Agnieszka Bielawska

‘Five years in the European Union’ frontpages Gazeta Wyborcza listing the benefits of EU accession for Poland. Since May 1st  2004 the GDP grew on the average   by 5.3%,Poland  received 12 billion euro from EU funds, Polish companies doubled their exports with the opening of EU markets, each year some 1.3 million Poles  found jobs in EU countries and 19% of Poland’s area is covered by special protection thanks to EU environment regulations. These are only some of the benefits listed by the daily, which however also points to the aims that failed like entering the euro zone, saving  Polish shipyards or achieving an influential representation in EU institutions.  Summing up the five years in EU Gazeta Wyborcza editor in chief Adam Michnik points that EU accession gave Poland positive results, which however should not overshadow the threats with which this country could yet  be confronted.

Rzeczpospolita, which also enumerates the benefits of Poland’s five-year EU membership, asks whether EU ideologists will not mar the satisfaction of being a citizen of the continent by confronting the member states with a choice between old and new Europe. The old continent with its traditions, culture and wisdom and the new Europe, which in outline appears as a confused entity writes Rzeczpospolita.
The same daily heartens up the business circles quoting Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which shows that Poland rose from the 15th  to the 5th  position in the latest ranking of investment marketability.  Poland’s rates are on the rise due to the low investment risk. Polish economy maintains a stable level and has a vast labour market .

Dziennik comments the Wednesday congress of the European People’s Party in Warsaw. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed 14 Prime Ministers, the head of the European Commission and Chairman of the European Parliament.  His address, writes the daily was  one of the finest clips promoting Poland. The Premier spoke of Solidarity ideals and recommended them as a recipe for the crisis. He spoke of optimism, faith in democracy and independence. Donald Tusk convinced the participants that the present crisis is nought in comparison to the situation of Poles, Hungarians, Lithuanians and all other nations, which had to live under Soviet domination. Dziennik writes that the guests greatly appreciated the dose of optimism, which however was not shared by the protesting shipyard workers who chose to manifest their discontent in front of the headquarters of the congress.

Zycie Warszawy, the Warsaw city daily writes that the city’s inhabitants are buying out facemasks and flu vaccines . Though no cases of the AH1N1 virus, or the swine flu, have been registered in Poland, anxiety is on the rise. A special Warsaw round the clock hotline was launched. The calls are answered by experts from the State Sanitary Inspectorate.
Queues line up in front of clinics, of people wishing to get the inoculation against flu. In  result many clinics already experience o shortage of the vaccine. Doctors appeal that such a vaccination   has little sense since the ‘swine flu ’ and human flu differ genetically.