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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well now, Britain’s membership of the European Union is set to be high on the agenda of a summit of European leaders later this month and although the Prime Minister has already warned he does not now expect an agreement at it, this week the European Council President Donald Tusk will write to EU leaders with his assessment of David Cameron’s key objectives for reform.  I am joined now by Agnieszka Pomaska, a Polish MP and Chair of Poland’s EU Affairs Committee, Professor Anand Menon from King’s College, London who is leading the UK in a Changing Europe research project and the German journalist and lecturer at Lincoln University, Imke Menkle from Zeit Online.  A very good morning to you all.  
I want to bring in the Polish view here, Agnieszka Pomaska, because Poland has often been described by many in the UK government as quite an ally on many of the issues in the European Union for the UK but this is a big dividing issue for you is it not.  

AGNIESZKA POMASKA: Well first of all I have to say we can’t imagine the European Union without UK and of course the debate that is going on here is very important for us.  Also because a lot of Poles is living here and working here but at the same time the Polish people here contribute to UK GDP so we take care of the debate but we take care of people living here and of course there is an issue of social benefits but we know that people that are coming here are not coming for social benefits but first of all they are coming here to work and we believe it is good both for UK’s economy and Polish economy and it is why we follow the debate.  We are open for any kind of reform but actually on the other hand …     

DM: But we have heard it explicitly from the government saying, look if Polish people come to work in the UK as is their absolute right within the European Union, they should get exactly the same benefits and privileges and support if they are in work as the UK population.

AGNIESZKA POMASKA: Well of course they shouldn’t be discriminated and that is quite obvious, I hope it’s obvious, it should be obvious here as well because they contribute to the UK’s economy and they pay taxes here so why they should be discriminated?  It is really difficult to understand I think in Poland and first of all I hope the debate here is not going to be an emotional debate but more rational debate, based on facts and not emotions.  

DM: The other thing is, one of the big pull factors, Agnieszka Pomaska, has of course been the state of the British economy vis a vis other EU nations, our economy has been growing consistently now for the last four or five years, others aren’t doing so well. Could you see, is it part of the Polish argument that well look, these flows at the moment that are largely from Eastern European countries including Poland, to the UK could in four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years easily change the other way?

AGNIESZKA POMASKA: What we have noticed recently is that the number of immigrants or Polish emigrants is quite stable, there are some people coming back and some moving to the UK and other countries like Germany for example, especially even more than to the UK and yes, I agree it’s difficult to predict.  We didn’t predict really the economical crisis in Europe so it is difficult to say what is going on in the next five years and actually it’s all about politics, it’s unpredictable and that’s why again I prefer the discussion less emotional, more based on rational data that we have at the moment.  

DM: We know about the Polish view of the in-work benefits element but the other three elements that Professor Menon mentioned there, these are things that Poland could support, the basic underlying theme of all three is just getting the EU to work better and work better economically.

AGNIESZKA POMASKA: Well I first of all should say about our goals and the way we think about the European Union and our membership.  We strongly believe that we will be strong when the European Union is strong and that’s why, well it is obvious that the UK makes the European Union stronger first of all economically but our goals are a bit different.  For example, our goal is still joining eurozone and on the other hand we don’t want to force the UK to join the eurozone and of course you will not change your mind.  

DM: I don’t think that will work.  Okay, listen, we’re out of time, thank you all very much indeed, very good to see you.