Integration of Poland with the EU - Essay Example

1 Introduction Poland, belonging to the former Eastern block, had fulfilled its long cherished dream of becoming part and parcel of the European Union in May 2004 when it successfully gained admission as a member along with nine other countries. Prior to that, Poland signed the Accession Treaty in Athens on April 16, 2003. According to the information made available by the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Poland Government, it embarked on its EU journey as far back as May 1990 when the then Polish Government had officially sought permission from the European Union to begin negotiations for its admission( Society). Much water has flowed under the bridge with in this period and Poland had undergone a sea change before it joined the EU bandwagon. If you go deeper into the past, it had travelled a long way from the former USSR controlled single-party communist political system to the much desired legislature democratic system found in many western European countries. Gone were the days of Communist repression by the Giereks, Kanias and Zarujelskis and Poland, now a blossoming democracy that has linked its destiny with the rest of the Europe, is presently looking ahead for a golden future. That Poland has gained admission into the EU indicates the political wisdom and maturity it has achieved and social transformation it has undergone over a period of time. Its much- awaited admission into the EU and integration with the west had just arrived as a climax that strengthened the already existing trade and cultural relationship between Poland and the rest of the Europe. 2 The trade bonds are in fact very strong between Poland and other European countries for a long time. As Larobina reveals, Poland was the seventh largest trading partner of the EU and between 1989 and 2001, EU exports to the former had trebled while its reciprocal imports had more than doubled (1). The admission into EU of Poland had only therefore formalised and officially branded its existing relationship with the rest of the region. Like any other European country, Poland too had to meet certain stringent conditions laid down by the EU and prove its credentials in matters of political stability, commitment to human rights, democracy, protection to minorities and market economy. Cordell argues that the first post-communist Polish regime had basically accorded highest priority to the issue of integration with the West and the subsequent Governments had also adopted similar line strengthening the political sentiment in favour of EU membership (29 & 30). He suggests that all Polish Governments since 1990 had made it a point to toe the line of full integration with the military, political and economic organisations of the Western Europe that included the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Western European Union (WEU) and the European Community/European Union (24). For the people of Poland who were vexed with the Russian supported-communist regimes till then, the change in the perception and attitude of the post-communist Governments had arrived as fresh breath of air. The fact that Poland, like Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia and some other European countries, had partly or fully enjoyed 3 patterns of culture similar to that of Western Europe for a long time had further given oxygen to the process of integration. As Slomp elaborates, most people of Poland are traditional Catholics too (164). All these factors had strengthened the popular perception of the people and political parties for total integration with the Western Europe. According to Parzymies, an observer of Polish affairs, Poland undoubtedly exhibited much enthusiasm in obtaining membership of the EU ever since its associate membership came into force partly from March 1, 1992 and fully from February 1, 1994 through the European Treaty of 1991(Para 3).But what could obviously be the benefit to either Poland or the rest of the Europe through Poland's admission into the EU Parzymies answers this by explaining that admission of Poland and some other countries would make the European countries forget the post-Yalta1 chapter in the European history on a permanent basis extending the security zone for all European countries into its eastern frontiers and reducing the civilization gap between Poland and the Western Europe ( Par II, Paras 2&3 ). On the same token, every one believed that Poland would face rapid development and industrial growth leading to the upliftment of all Poles. In the backdrop of the entire world transforming itself into a global village, Poland's membership of the EU and its integration assumes special significance, at least for the ------------------ 1Pak, Chi-Yong, Korea and the United Nations (The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2000) 3. 4 Poles, if not for the entire Europeans. This paper therefore examines in detail whether or not the integration of Poland into the European Union has resulted in the fulfilment of expected objectives in relation to the EU and Poland. For this, we will study the economic and social spheres that existed in Poland before and after its integration with EU. Poland before accession Polish economy mainly consists of agriculture, industry and services with services sector dominating the entire economic activity with its contribution of 64.8% to the total GDP of the country, followed by industry with 31.4 % and agriculture 3.8%. But when it comes to employment, 50.4% of the total work force in the country has been working in the services sector, while 30.8% and 18.8% have been working in the industry and agriculture sectors respectively (Poland). The transition from communist set up to the market economy was not an overnight affair and Poland had to introduce reforms in all sectors of economy and polity to get eligibility to join the EU. Three / four years prior to the formal integration with EU, Poland had suffered heavily on its economic front. Growing inflation and national debt, severe unemployment problem, decreasing value of its currency, zloty and ever increasing trade deficit have pushed the country to the brink. With a population of nearly 40 million people, Poland had chosen the path of economic liberalisation since the early 1990s (The world fact book). World Bank says that the reforms package covered almost all sectors including agriculture (18). But the reforms in the agricultural sector were more revealing. 5 As per the World Bank, communist regimes allocated 10% of the GDP every year to agricultural subsidies, exports and imports in addition to providing low-interest credit supported with assured farm prices to the farmers. In a complete turn around, the reforms brought this subsidies share in GDP from 10 % to 1%. Restricted market for Polish agriculture Before the accession, access for Polish agricultural products in the European markets was very limited. In this backdrop, Poland had to struggle to introduce reforms in agricultural sector. Though services sector dominates the Polish economy, agriculture also has been a key sector like in many other developing countries and formulating a common agricultural policy (CAP) has been a challenging task for the Polish Government in order to get qualified for joining the EU. The experiences of other member countries have shown that the problems faced in the process of integration have been largely related to agriculture and based on this, Polish Government has carried out structural adjustment programmes in this sector on a priority basis gradually eliminating subsidies and price protection methods. According to the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Food economy, reforms in the agriculture sector were given high priority among all the economic sectors of the country in the process of integration with the EU ( Para 1). Kaminski elaborates that in spite of the structural adjustments carried out in this sector under the European Agreement (EA), access to EU markets for Polish agricultural products largely remained 6 restricted up to 1996.Reforms saw only a 10 % increase in some of its agricultural products( 6). As we have discussed in the introduction, the emergence of a market economy was one of the prerequisites for any European country to join the EU. Removal of subsidies was therefore only a step in the right direction and the successive Poland Governments had implemented several such measures in order to attain a full fledged market economy. As its economic liberalisation process was mainly linked to its ultimate aim of obtaining EU membership, the reforms were received in good faith and had attracted the attention of multinational firms. According to the Embassy of Poland in USA, Poland attracted foreign investments worth US $ 72.7 billion between 1993 and 2003 (Introduction).While 74% of these Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) are from the European countries, the rest had come from several countries including USA, South Korea, and Japan. The above FDI figures may indicate that the health of the Polish economy was sound during the initial years of the 21st century and even earlier but if you go deeper into the statistics of the country's economy, the details would be disturbing. Despite continuous economic reforms being implemented, the economic situation of Poland remained pathetic in 2000. Economic affairs analyst Burnat says that in 2000 Poland's exports stood at $31.6 billion equalling to the 0.6 % of total world trade and pushing the country into the 24th position in the international ratings ( Para 1). Its imports in the same year reached a figure of $49.8 billion causing a deficit of $18.2 billion in the current account. 7 In terms of per capita exports, it stood at $730 and fell below the averages of EU countries and Central and Eastern European countries that stood at $5819 and $ 748 respectively. Unemployment While the successive post-communist Governments of Poland were busy implementing various programmes concerning economic liberalisation, they did not care for curbing growing unemployment in the country. In their enthusiasm to speed up the process of getting admitted into the EU, the Governments neglected productivity and employment sectors resulting in continuous rise of unemployment rate. Starting from 1998 on wards, unemployment rate in the country rose very sharply every year. As per the European Foundation statistics, the unemployment rate peaked to 18.1% in 2002 from 9.6% in 1998 (Table 1). The foundation discloses that this situation had arisen because of the liberalisation of the economy and reduced demand for the Polish products in the former Soviet supported countries. It further clarifies that these figures are official and unofficially the unemployment rate would be much higher. That the number of unemployed was more in the rural areas than the urban places was much more disturbing. While the above mentioned rates are related to general unemployment in the country, the unemployment rate was very high among the youth at 31.2%, 28.5%, 24.7%, 23.2%, 8 30%, 35.2% and 41% in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 respectively ( Poland). Polish currency: Zloty Vs Euro and US $ Prior to Poland's admission into the EU, Polish currency, zloty, was subjected to frequent ups and downs in relation to the euro. In the four years from 2000, it remained very weak against the euro occasionally establishing lead over it but immediately dipping to the lowest depths. In relation to the US dollar too, zloty suffered heavily in the said period reaching its lowest ebb at times. As Poland's external trade was mostly carried out with European countries and the euro consistently maintained an upper lead over zloty except for a few occasions, the Polish economy suffered heavily. With the zloty keeping a low profile, Poland's external debt also skyrocketed at times as the debt repayments would generally be calculated in foreign currency only. Zloty that stood at 0.235247 during the first week of January 2000 plummeted to 0.213134 on December 30, 2003. During this period, it saw great heights temporarily on June 12, 2001 and December 12, 2002 reaching 0.297753 and 0.303103 respectively. In 2004 too, its downhill journey against the Euro continued till the first week of May. Launching its journey at 0.213213 on January 1, 2004, the zloty nosedived to its lowest at 0.203912 on February 20. But, as its date of joining the EU was fast 9 approaching, it began to pick up gradually and stood at 0.209209 on May 18. After that it never looked back (Graph). The influence of zloty on the economy The downhill journey of zloty put a heavy burden on the economy of the country. Investors found it compulsory to indulge in heavy sales of the Polish currency as it began to shed value against the euro continuously around January 2004, as we have seen above. As Jaga explains, investors were worried about the national debt and the public finances and the Government too began selling treasury bonds to attract foreign investors (Para 1).Coupled with this, the trade imbalance of Poland grew continuously since 2001. United Nations reveals that Poland saw a growth rate of 14% in 2001 in the exports of merchandise goods over the previous year but it came down to 13.6% in 2002 (24). Not surprisingly, it went up to a record 26.9% in 2003 over the previous year. When we compare them with the growth rates in imports of the merchandise goods, we would find a more or less similar trend. The growth rate in imports went up by 2.7%, 9.6% and 20.4% in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. The 2003 growth rate in imports in the merchandise goods was the highest in the past 4 years prior to Poland joining the EU. The current account deficit gradually reduced in the three years prior to the accession establishing a negative balance of US $ 7166 million, $6700 million and $ 2656 Million in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. In terms of percentage of GDP, it was 7.7, 7.5 and 6.9 in the three years respectively. 10 In the year 2000, furniture, furnishings and fittings dominated the general commodities and industrial goods segment of the Polish exports with a record percentage of 6.9 followed by passenger cars with 4.6%, internal combustion engines with 4%, ships and boats with 3.3% and motor vehicles and spare parts with 2.5%. With regard to imports in the same segment in the year, petroleum and crude oil items dominated the scene with 7.1% followed by passenger cars with 3.5%, telecommunication equipment with 3.4%, motor vehicles and accessories with 3.1% and medicaments with 2.8%. GDP Prior to the accession, the GDP growth rate of the economy gradually grew at 5.2%, 7%,6%,6.8%,4.8%,4.1%, 4%, 1% and 1.3% in 1994,1995,1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2001 respectively. While the contribution of the services sector to GDP has been consistently growing since 1994, the economy saw a wayward contribution from agriculture and industry sectors during the same period. The performance of agriculture consistently grew till 1998, maintained the status quo in the next year, fell substantially in the succeeding year and rose to the 1999 level in 2001.The contribution of the industry sector too grew consistently till 2000 but reached the 1997 levels in 2001 ( Poland). However, things began to show up on the economic front of Poland in 2003 as its date of joining the EU fast approached. The Embassy of Poland in US points out that due to continuous reforms spread over a period of 13 years, the infrastructure and fundamentals of market economy have been strengthened abundantly leading to the consolidation of the 11 private sector in the country (Economy). The following figures provide the status of the Poland economy in 2003. GDP growth rate 3.7% Inflation rate 1.7% Unemployment rate 20% Trade relations with EU countries Trade relations of Poland continued mainly with other European countries even before its joining the EU. Burnat reveals that most of its international trade involved member-countries of EU, countries belonging to the former USSR, developing nations and the CEFTA with European countries sharing the bulk of Poland's exports and imports ( Para 2). Burnat further says that Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium and Sweden remained its dominant trading partners with Poland accounting for just 2.3 % and 3.6% of total EU imports and exports respectively. But unfortunately ever since the liberalisation process began, Poland's current account deficit too continued to grow to alarming proportions. From a moderate trade imbalance of $ 4 billion in 1993-94, it gradually trekked to a whopping $ 18.8 billion in 1998 but came down marginally to $18.5 billion in the next year. Burnat explains that this continuous increase in the trade deficit was mainly due to the ups and downs in the exchange rates that occurred between the Polish currency and the Euro. 12 Streamlining of legal, civil and democratic systems Before the accession, the legal system in Poland was also in some disturbed condition with tens of thousands of cases getting piled up in courts causing mental agony to the litigants. Along with the integration of economy, social integration was also needed to reform the society. Successive Polish Governments had therefore gradually introduced steps to streamline and integrate the legal system and bring it in compliance with the EU law. As Larobina suggests, civil administration system, along with decentralisation of democratic setup, was also streamlined to integrate Poland lock, stock and barrel with the EU (5 & 6). The entire political system was divided into 49 different regions with each one going under the charge of a Governor who would report to the Central Government. Assemblies and Municipalities were also constituted to streamline democratic setup of the country. From 1996, Poland had introduced a civil service system to run the civic administration of the country. Poland after accession The expected benefits of integration Integration of Poland with the EU was expected to bring benefits to both Poland and the EU. As Larobina points out, these included economic and political stability, employment generation and infrastructural development in Poland, and greater security to the region 13 as a whole and cultural linkage with other European countries (Introduction). With regard to other member countries of the EU, their bilateral trade with Poland was expected to shoot off multi fold leading to more frequency of movement of people and transport of goods and services among EU countries generating a feeling of togetherness among all Europeans. In fact, even before the accession, ground was prepared for strengthening the infrastructural development like new roads construction and environmental protection in the country. Poland had successfully used ISPA (instrument for structural policies for pre-accession) funds for these facilities allotted by the EU. As per the statistics of 2003, Poland had a road infrastructure extending up to nearly 3.5 million Km providing trafficking space to 15 million vehicles in the country (Industrial operations). The statistics reveal that in a period of four years from 2000, Poland had attracted a major chunk of the EU's ISPA funds to the tune of 34% followed by Romania 25%, Bulgaria 10%, Hungary 9%, Czech Republic 5% and the rest of the candidate countries sharing among themselves 15% of the funds. The European Union launched this special project in 2000 under which candidate-countries benefited for carrying out structural adjustment programmes. Its funds were allotted on a 50/50 basis for transport development and environmental protection in the candidate-countries. Taking into consideration several factors including candidate countries' population, land area and per capita GDP, ISPA would generally decide on the quantum of funds to be allotted to prospective member-countries. But the problem with this project is that once a candidate country's membership is approved for admission into the EU, this funding is stopped permanently. As Poland was admitted into 14 the EU as a full fledged member in May 2004, this funding was stopped to Poland and some other newly joined countries. It has been widely acknowledged that Poland has excellently benefited in the economic sphere after joining the EU in 2004. Lynam, BBC world service business reporter, in a business news dispatch, categorically discloses that the Poles, especially Polish farmers and manufacturers have benefited by making their products accessible to a wider market of more than 450 million people all over Europe. Thanks to its EU membership, Poland has also begun to attract a major share of the FDI coming to Central Europe (Paras 1 & 2). The effect of accession on the inflow of FDI into Poland was so great that in the accession year itself the country received an FDI of $ US 7858 million, the highest since 2001. According to the Polish information and foreign investment agency (PAIiIZ), the value of the accumulated foreign capital in the same year stood at $US 84477 million. The agency further says that France topped the list with 101 companies investing around $US 16026 million, followed by the Netherlands, USA and Germany with investments of 11154 million, $ 10163 million and $10149 million respectively (Foreign direct investment). The accession effect was seen in the GDP growth rate too. In the first quarter of accession to EU, Poland's GDP growth rate established a record of 7% confirming the 15 fact that the country benefited from its accession. According to an article published in Warsaw Voice, it was made possible because of its accession to the EU and increased exports (Para 2). EU funds for Poland As already pointed out, inflow of ISPA funds into Poland stopped with the accession but funds kept coming into the country in some shape or the other. To reduce the gap in developmental activities among the EU member states, EU has evolved four types of funds known as the ESF (European Social Fund), ERDF (European Regional Developmental Fund), EAGGF (European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund) and FIFG (Financial instrument for fisheries guidance). Cohesion Fund, which came into force as an instrument of the structural policy, was also used to pace up the developmental activities in the member countries. As per the information provided by PAIiIZ, between 2004 and 2006, EU has reserved funds totalling to 148915 million under various schemes for member countries and allotted 11368.6 million for Poland (EU structural funds-supporting investments). Polish agriculture The accession has brought about a revolution in the agricultural sector of Poland. Central Statistical Office of Poland reveals that Poland's gross agricultural production was in 16 55985 million tonnes, 60319 million tonnes, 55706 million tonnes and 56263 million tonnes in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively( agriculture). But it jumped to 69742 million tonnes in 2004 showing the impact of accession. The accession has introduced latest farming methods and innovation to the Polish agricultural fields sending up the farm production to record levels. Land used for farming had also gone up substantially after the country joining the EU. The technology used in agricultural sectors of the other member countries had descended on Poland and immensely benefited the Polish farmers. The most important benefit of integration is that the Polish farmers have begun to price their products at a higher range resulting in higher food prices. Indirectly, they have begun to receive subsidies from several EU schemes. Poland is also likely to benefit from around $ US 13.5 billion in 2006. Zloty strengthens Poland's admission into the EU has brought much relief to its currency sending zloty upwards against both the euro and the American dollar. The zloty stood at $ 0.268629 against the US currency on May 1, 2004 but zoomed up to $ 0.306063 on the last day of 2005. In the process, the zloty peaked to $ 0.335570 on December 29.2004 but could not sustain the value. Similarly, In relation to the euro, it stood at 0.208051 on May 1, 2004 but peaked and stood at 0.258440 on the last day of the year 2005(Graph). With the zloty establishing a lead continuously over the euro and the US dollar after the country's accession to the EU, things began to transform into a positive note for the 17 Polish economy. Increasing food exports, continuous inflow of euro money and increasing inflow of foreign direct investments from other countries have strengthened the Polish economy beyond expectations. Tourism between Poland and other European countries picked up and employment opportunities had also increased in the country. Jaga points out that with the zloty gaining strength in value against the euro by 11.1% and US dollar by over 17%, the national debt had decreased by 2.5% (Para 2). This was because of the increase in zloty revenue and decrease in zloty payments for settling the current account. It is true that the Polish currency value has gone up after the accession against the euro and American dollar. 2005 CIA world fact book reveals that though this new found value of zloty helped the Government reduce the external debt burden and set right the trade imbalances to some extent, there is a fear that the growing value of the Polish zloty may threaten its exports in future and nullify its competitiveness in the world market (Poland economy 2005). The fact book acknowledges that after the accession, Polish exports to the EU member countries have gone up boosting up the economy. Conclusion Poland has come a long way from communism to democracy. The main EU precondition that a membership-seeking country must represent the characteristics of a full and liberal democracy and be equipped with stable democratic institutions guaranteeing rule of the 18 law, human rights in the country and protection to the minorities has been fulfilled by Poland. Now, it is like any other established democracy of the world and Poland takes pride in its democratic credentials. It is really a matter of pride for the Poles. Poland must also be appreciated for the success it has achieved through transition to market economy. Among all the European countries, it shines and stands as an example. After the accession, exports have gone up, the zloty has strengthened, national debt burden has reduced to some extent and unemployment problem has eased a little bit. EU-suggested reforms have resulted in the growth of the private sector making way for the enhanced inflow of FDI into the country. Certainly, the integration has been a success story and Poland has benefited from its accession to the EU and in future also, it will benefit heavily from its integration. But the most worrying fact is that the country, after transition from a socialistic economy to a market based economy, has accepted a new culture in inviting corruption that was inherent in the market-bound economic system. The question now is whether or not the economic activity brought out by the accession would reach out to the masses as the country's political system was riddled with corruption. 2005 CIA world fact book expresses doubts over the continuity of the reforms as the reforms in the agricultural sector were hampered by the excess labour, lack of sufficient funds and small farms (Poland economy 2005). It further says that bureaucratic obstacles, delays and corruption 19 have been hampering the growth prospects of the country and confirms that the reforms in the sensitive areas have brought large scale fiscal pressure on the economy. In fact, corruption has become the number one issue in Poland and as Lynam points out, the spectre of corruption has reached menacing proportions that it can dilute the growth in the Polish economy. (Para 3). He says that it is difficult to read a newspaper or listen to TV news without getting into corruption news involving politicians of the country. He recalls that Leszek Miller had to resign as the Prime Minister because of a corruption scandal and that a high profile film maker had to be arrested for his alleged offer to get the legislation changed for a sum of $18 million. The corruption and other scandals have forced the industrialists and top businessmen of the country into commenting that Poland could have achieved nearly 10% growth rate in its GDP in stead of 5.4% / 5.6 % in 2005 had not the scandals and corruption pervaded the political system. Political leadership of Poland must recognise the fact that integration itself would not result in the over all development of the country but requires dedication, hard work and continuous struggle for the proper implementation of various programmes. Corruption will only lead the country to the brink of financial collapse resulting in the further growth of regional imbalances. 20 For Poland, the aim of accession and joining the EU is the narrowing down of the regional imbalances in the country in general and economic development of Poles in particular. For the EU, the aim in admitting Poland into its fold lies in its wish for narrowing down the regional imbalances in European region in general and economic sustenance of the member-countries in particular. To achieve both the objectives, Poland must become corruption-free state and the EU must put a check on the path of Polish corruption. 21 Bibliography: Books Cordel, Karl (ed). Poland and the European Union. New York: Routledge, 2000. Kaminski, Bartomiej. The role of foreign direct investment and trade policies in Poland's accession to the European Union. Washington: World Bank Publications, 1999. Slomp, Hans. European Politics into the Twenty-first century: Integration and Division. CT (USA): Praeger/Greenwood publishing, 2000. United Nations. Economic survey of Europe 2003.USA: United Nations publications, 2004. World Bank. Poland, policies for growth with equity. Washington: World Bank, 1994. Websites Burnat, Magdalena. "Poland's economic relations with the European Union in 2000." 18 April 2006 Central Statistical Office. " Information by category." 22 April 2006 2005 CIA World fact book. 22 April 2006 The Embassy of Poland in USA. "Economic & Commercial section." 18 April 2006 European Foundation. "The dynamics of unemployment from 1990 to 2002." 19 April 2006 Graph. "From January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2003." 20 April 2006 Industrial operations. "Business area road marking." 20 April 2006 22 Jaga, Baba. "Poland a year after joining European Union." (July 2005) 20 April 2006 Lynam, Joe. " Corruption shadows Polish growth." (August 4, 2005) 19 April 2006 Larobina, D Michael. "A report on Poland and European Union Accession." Multinational Business Review (Fall 2001): 13 April 2006 Parzymies, Stanislaw." Poland negotiates EU accession." (2000). 13 April 2006 Poland. 21April 2006 Polish information and foreign investment agency (PAIiIZ). 22 April 2006 Polish Ministry of agriculture and Food economy. "Introduction." 21 April 2006 Society. "Poland's way to UE." (2006) 13 April 2006 The world fact book. "Poland." (March 29, 2006). 18 April 2006 Warsaw Voice. " The economy slows down." http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/8613 23 Appendix 1 Country breakdown showing the quantum of investments in Poland in 2004 Country breakdown of FDI stock in Poland - capital registration, as of 31 December2004. Country of registration Number of investors Capital invested (millions of USD) France 101 16,026.1 The Netherlands 126 11,154.2 USA 118 10,163.7 Germany 258 10,149.5 International 14 4,648.7 The United Kingdom 56 4,337.2 Italy 67 4,089.3 Sweden 60 3,715.2 Belgium 27 2,902.6 Denmark 50 2,096.2 Switzerland 28 1,617.5 Austria 40 1,223.7 The Republic of Korea 6 1,167.9 Cyprus 4 1,110.5 Ireland 6 1,026.2 Portugal 4 678.4 Luxembourg 19 673.0 Finland 20 578.5 Greece 4 561.6 Spain 11 486.3 Russia 3 409.1 Japan 18 362.3 Norway 14 345.2 Croatia 2 219.0 Canada 13 210.9 Australia 3 159.5 Turkey 4 100.1 The Czech Republic 5 75.0 Israel 4 70.4 Slovenia 2 70.3 Republic of South Africa 1 57.2 Hungary 4 55.8 China 2 45.0 Philippines 1 40.0 Liechtenstein 5 16.9 Monaco 1 6.8 Source for appendix 1: http://paiz.gov.pl/index/id=ed3d2c21991e3bef5e069713af9fa6ca Read More