PM Donald Tusk wants two Civic Platform members elected for the EU Parliament, writes the Polska daily.

Press reviewed by Alicja Baczynska

European parliamentary elections will be held next spring, yet Prime Minister Donald Tusk is already discussing candidatures with the current Parliament President, Hans Gert-Poettering, writes the Polska daily. He is also to meet MEP Joseph Daul, member of the European People's Party and European Democrats group, who is arriving in Warsaw this Wednesday. Mr. Tusk is determined to have Civic Platform (PO) party members appointed head of the European Parliament and European Commission vice-president for enterprise and industry. The Christian Democrats have already made it clear that the candidate for the head of the Parliament must be a former MEP and have experience in holding top posts within EU structures. Two people are being considered for the position: Jacek Protasiewicz, Donald Tusk’s former chief of staff and current Chairman of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Belarus and Janusz Lewandowski, vice-president of the parliament's budget committee. Mr. Lewandowski is also likely to run for European Commission vice-president.

Only 15 percent of disabled people are employed in Poland, while the average in the European Union is 50 percent, writes Gazeta Wyborcza. The government, however, hopes that a new bill amending the law on employment of disabled people, recently prepared by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, will raise the figures to 21 percent in two years. The provisions of the new law include decreasing the subsidies towards compensation and training of disabled workers at the so-called supported employment enterprises. On the other hand, other companies will gain access to the subsidies for labour costs, which along with simplified funding regulations may encourage employers to take on more disabled people. Moreover, subsidies will be extended onto adaption of the work station and facilities to the needs of disabled employees. The law is to come into effect in 2009.

Dziennik takes a closer look at the problem of segregation at Polish schools. The daily writes that 20 percent of schools across the country divide children into classes on the basis of wealth, grades, or background. It’s a social problem, said an expert quoted by the paper, as children with lower marks go to classes of lower education level, which puts a stigma of failures on them, instilling the feeling of helplessness and inferiority. The more talented, richer, better behaved children are at a disadvantage as well. These children may lose touch with reality, they may develop no empathy, or tolerance for other people, which may lead to promoting unjust divisions in society once they grow up, writes a columnist with the paper. Preocuppied with school-end results and rankings, the school authorities see nothing wrong in these practices, explaining that this improves job organisation, provides a uniform level of education among the children and improves supervision over poor students. A questionnaire distributed annually among parents is key to such segregation. It includes items such as the parents’ jobs, posts, compensation and the number of rooms at home. The questionnaire is a standard procedure officially aimed at providing assistance to the poor children.