Barroso lays hold of EU budget

“Barroso reduces Lewandowski’s standing”, headlines Rzeczpospolita, quoting a letter sent by the Secretary-General of the European Commission, Catherine Day, to the Commission’s respective directors. According to the Warsaw daily, the letter makes it clear that it is Commission President José Manuel Barroso and “his people”, rather than the budget commissioner, Poland’s Janusz Lewandowski, who will personally oversee work on the EU budget for 2014-2020. Mr Lewandowski is to be merely one of the members of the Barroso-led “task force”. Rzeczpospolita suggests that this proves that Poland doesn’t have a very strong position in the EU, an outcome due to the fact that Warsaw hasn’t “clearly defined its intentions”. “In Brussels, they respect wealthy countries and those who know what they want. Poland, however, has since EU accession failed to articulate clearly what its goals are”, concludes the daily in its editorial.