EU / POLAND: Assuming Presidency...PM Tusk Blasts EU Leaders For Hypocrisy; Fin Min Rostowski Voices Doubts About EU Approach To Greek Crisis.

GUARDIAN

Taking his new role as rotating EU president seriously, Poland's PM Donald Tusk strongly criticized the EU's role in the Greece's sovereign debt crisis, immigration, spending and the budget.

He accused some national leaders of posing as champions while pandering to Euro-skepticism and using immigration fears to curb the Schengen Treaty's important freedom of travel.

"The different phenomenon I am talking about is the birth of a type of Euro-skepticism which does not declare itself. But it's the behavior, the words, the actions by politicians who say they are for the EU, support further integration, but at the same time suggest actions and decisions that weaken the community."

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Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski (above) added his opinion over doubts about the EU's handling of the Greek debt crisis.
He believes there is too much emphasis on austerity and too little focus on growth.
Rostowski is a British-born economist and academic.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/02/eurozone-crisis-poland-idUSLDE76103220110702

ROMANIA/ BULGARIA: 2011 Passport-Free Travel Blocked By France And Germany.

BBC/
    Bulgaria and Romania have been blocked from Europe's passport-free travel zone because of lobbying by Germany and France, who called their joining Schengen in March 2011 "premature."
    The two interior ministers said Bulgaria and Romania needed to make "irreversible progress" in the fight against corruption and organized crime.
    Romania denounced the decision. President Traian Basescu said: "I believe that the Franco-German letter sent to the European Commission is an act of discrimination against Romania."
                Bulgaria said it would "do its utmost" to remove doubts about its membership.

GERMANY/POLAND: Open Borders Feeding Vehicle Thefts.

WSJ/  By PATRICK MCGROARTY:       "Thefts of luxury cars and heavy duty equipment such as tractors and trucks are surging along Germany's eastern border. In 2009, vehicle thefts in four of the five German states near the eastern frontier with Poland and the Czech Republic rose to their highest levels since 2000. In Berlin, a 45-minute drive to the Polish border, thefts jumped more than 40%, representing more than €40 million (about $50 million) in lost and damaged vehicles, insurance analysts say.  To many in this remote stretch of eastern Germany, the reason for the increase in vehicle larceny is clear: the elimination of border controls in 2007."