Polish experience can help avoid Greek tragedy

“Poland survived the bankruptcy of a previous system. It was a painful experience but provided the impetus for change for the better,” President Bronislaw Komorowski said while meeting members of the European Parliament yesterday in Strasbourg.

Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday sought to calm jittery markets after some German politicians, including deputy chancellor Philip Rosler, muted the idea that Greece should be allowed to go bust to protect it from its creditors.

"I think we will do Greece the biggest favour by not speculating much, but instead encouraging Greece to implement the commitments it has made," Merkel told RBB Inforadio, Tuesday.

The Polish government was in agreement that Greece should not be allowed to go to the wall.

Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak recalled yesterday how Poland restructured its debt with the help of loans for the so-called Paris Club in the 1990s after the economy was left in ruins by the fallen communist regime.

“We should not destabilise markets today by talking about Greek bankruptcy,” he said.

President Komorowski told MEPs in a speech marking Poland's six-month presidency of the EU, which began 1 July, that Poland managed to overcome its debt problems in the 1990s without “20 years of continuous growth,” as had been seen in Greece until recently, and “without the help of being a member of the EU”.

“I urge Greece to greater efforts […] even if the process of change hurts […] because the pain of reform is one of the sources of our success,” Komorowski said. (pg)