The leaders of France and Germany invited Poland and other non-eurozone members of the European Union on Monday to join a proposed new "competitiveness pact" aimed at strengthening Europe's economy. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed the measures - including limits on debt levels written into national law and a higher retirement age - at an EU summit last week but immediately ran into criticism from other member states.
"Regarding this competitiveness pact which is being set up we said we would like to invite countries that don't yet have the euro to participate," Merkel told a joint news conference in Warsaw after talks with Sarkozy and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski.
"This pact, where there are most opportunities for reforms, is open and we would like to see our Polish friends... participate because they are a reform-friendly country with a tradition of (fiscal) consolidation," Merkel said. Poland already has constitutional limits on its debt load. "Everybody must understand there is a need to curb the deficit of particular member states. In this regard you cannot treat the EU budget differently to national budgets as the EU budget is directly linked to member states' budgets," Sarkozy said.
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