Poland and the EU

From Tokyo, Japan and Abu Dhabi UAE, this is Down to Business English Business News to improve your business English with your hosts Git Montreux and Des Morgan.

Mr. Des Morgan, happy belated new year to you.

And a happy new year to you too, Skip.

Welcome back.

Hey, good to be back.

Listeners, we are very sorry for taking so long to get a new episode out this year. But we ran into a hurdle that was a little bit out of our hands. Des, do you want to explain what happened?

Well, we were all ready to go in early January when we discovered that the UAE had blocked Skype and all other VOIP services. As Skype is our main method of communication, Skip and I couldn't speak with each other.

That's right. We could text, but we couldn't actually have a conversation, which made it impossible to record.

Fortunately, we found a workaround and it looks like we can move forward from here. We will try to catch up on episodes in February and in March.

Onwards and upwards. So Des, you travelled back to the UK over the winter holidays, didn't you? How was that? Were you in London for New Year's Eve? I hear they throw quite the party in old London town.

Yes, I hear they do, but um I wasn't invited.

Oh well, nothing has changed in that department then.

Indeed. And how about you? Did you have a good New Year's celebration?

It was on the quiet side actually. I did the typical Japanese routine. I cleaned up around my house, ate some soba on New Year's Eve, and then at midnight went to the local shrine and prayed for good fortune for the upcoming year. Then I went home and basically hibernated for a few days. Not too much, no.

Well, you sound rested, said

I feel rested as a matter of fact. Looking forward to a very productive year for Down to Business English, and I'm excited to finally be recording our first podcast of the season.

Me too.

I want to ask you Des, when you were in the UK, how did you find the mood in terms of the looming Brexit? From what I can tell, negotiations are not going as well as Teresa May had hoped.

Actually, people are finally starting to wake up to the fact that Brexit is happening.

I've recently read that Nigel Farage is back and is open to having a second referendum.

Ha I didn't hear that.

But

Stranger things have happened.

Have you been following the developments between the European Union and Poland?

Are you referring to the EU triggering Article seven against them in late December? Which could lead to Poland losing their EU voting rights? Those developments?

Yes, those developments. Have you been following them?

Somewhat, yes. If the EU didn't have enough on their hands with the UK, they're now battling another member state. Is this our story today?

I have indeed prepared a report on this very topic.

That's good.

So let's do it.

I have to say, Skip, I'm a little surprised you have chosen this story. The EU is my beat. If you had asked, I could have prepared a report.

I know, but there are two good reasons I decided to tackle this topic on my own.

And what are the

They're not going to be able to do well first, uh one of our D T members in Poland has asked us several times to cover a story related to Poland.

Well that's a good reason.

And secondly, the EU triggered Article 7 in late December. Just as you were leaving on holidays, I didn't want to burden you with the extra task of researching a report while you were away.

I would have done it, it wouldn't have been a problem in the least.

I know you wouldn't balk at doing it. That's why I didn't say anything. You did so much research and writing last season I wanted to help out a bit. Besides, I had some time on my hands.

You consider it.

Sorry if I'm stepping on your toes by covering the EU.

No, not at all.

However, I am hoping you can use your EU expertise to clarify a few points for me. So let's start with the country itself. What can you tell me about Poland, Des?

Well, off the top of my head I would say that Poland is a former Soviet bloc country who after the fall of the USSR quickly aligned itself with the European Union.

Oh, superb. Although I might add that economic and political movements in Poland in the nineteen eighties played a large role in the downfall of the Soviet Union.

Yes, I would agree with that. Le Qualenza and the solidarity movement was instrumental in bringing democracy to the country.

But even before the Republic of Poland came into existence in the early nineties, Poland was in negotiations with the European Economic Community, or EEC.

A precursor to the European Union. Oh.

Oh you are quite the Euro expert, aren't you?

Uh I'm just clarifying for our non European listeners.

Well thank you. So Poland was negotiating with the EEC, which in nineteen ninety four became the EU. And almost immediately Poland applied for membership.

But if memory serves me they didn't become an official member until two thousand three or two thousand four. It took about ten years of negotiations to meet all the requirements for joining the club, I believe.

You really are a Euro expert, and I'm not being sarcastic this time. That is exactly correct. Poland became a full member of the EU on May 4, 2004.

I clearly remember that it was a big event because in addition to Poland nine other countries joined on the same day. It was the EU's largest expansion.

I don't know how those other countries have fared, but Poland has been a powerhouse in the EU.

Well that might be a bit of an overstatement. I mean Germany is by far the economic powerhouse in Europe.

Well, okay, not a German style powerhouse, but not so far off either.

Oh sure, there's no denying Poland has come a long way economically since nineteen ninety.

Did you know that since nineteen ninety one, Poland's per capita income has increased from twenty three hundred dollars to thirteen thousand dollars, and their economy has grown on average of Four percent a year. That's a European record.

Four percent not exactly on par with emerging economies, but impressive nevertheless. Economies like China, Southeast Asia, Brazil, even Mexico.

Sure, those economies may have seen higher growth rates in some years, but at the same time they have taken huge steps back in other years.

Sure enough, a slow and steady approach does have its benefits. So what is Poland's secret? How have they managed this stable economic climate?

In a word, manufacturing. Unlike economies such as Brazil or Argentina, and even Russia to some extent, Poland does not depend on commodity export. Instead, they have focused more on their manufacturing sector.

Relying too heavily on exports like oil is quite risky, as everyone can see in Venezuela.

Exactly. Out of the world's thirteen emerging economies, nine of them still rely on commodity exports. The four that don't are all Eastern European economies, and Poland is leading the way. The manufacturing sector in Poland accounts for thirty three percent of their GDP.

Well it makes sense. Their labour costs are much lower than Germany's and the Polish currency is relatively weak.

Both of those conditions help them be more competitive against the likes of China and Southeast Asia in terms of manufacturing.

Okay, so Poland has benefited from their EU membership and is doing well. What led to this Article seven business?

Well just before we get to that, can you give us a rundown on what Article seven is? You are the Euro expert on the team after all.

Article seven is a mechanism which allows the European Commission to punish a Member State who they feel is not meeting fundamental human and legal rights. One of the three pillars the EU is based on is that all EU citizens have the same legal rights. Regardless of which country they are from.

It really is a touchy subject because on one hand, each country wants to be able to make their own laws and retain their independence. But on the other hand, it is important that everyone have the same right.

Uh it certainly was a big factor in the Brexit decision. One of the Leave campaign's biggest arguments was that the UK was losing its ability to make national decisions. that the European Commission was making decisions they had no right to make.

And that is what is behind invoking Article Seven against Poland. The European Commission is not happy about recent judicial reforms Poland's right wing government has been implementing. According to the Commission, these reforms make Poland less democratic.

And is that true?

Certainly not from the Polish government's point of view. They claim they are simply fulfilling a campaign promise and the Commission is only trying to flex their muscles.

And uh where do the Polish people stand on the issue?

Well, I want to be a little careful here. There have been public protests against the reforms the government is making. But at the same time, people are happy with how economic and immigration policies are being managed. But honestly, it depends on who you ask and which media outlet you believe.

Do you think there's another EU exit on the horizon?

I doubt it. Now that Article 7 has been triggered, Poland has three months to address the Commission's accusations. If the Commission is not satisfied, the matter will be put to the other twenty seven EU countries for a vote. If and only if the twenty seven countries are in agreement, Poland would lose their voting rights in the EU.

A unanimous decision. That's highly unlikely.

More like impossible, Hungary has already stated they will not vote against Poland.

You know, rather than the two of us speculating, I'd like to hear from our Polish listeners about all of this. What do they think of the situation?

Me too. Is the EU out of line triggering Article 7?

And does the public support the government's judicial reforms?

So to all our European listeners, especially if you are from Poland, send us an email, let us know your views.

But for now, Skip, it's time for us to get D T down to vocabulary.

Down to business English audio scripts are a great learning tool. Be sure to visit the D2B website and download your free audio script of today's podcast. Down to businessenglish dot com that's WWW dot down to businessenglish dot com.

Uh just before we get into DTV today, we have an announcement to make, don't we skip?

Yes we do. D2B members and any listener who is on our mailing list will have already heard about this, but today Down to Business English is happy to announce an all-new self-study product. D2C down to communication.

And can you tell everyone what down to communication is and how it came about?

Well, one of our D2B executive director members contacted us late last year. He explained that D2B was helping expand his vocabulary and improve his listening comprehension skills. didn't really help with his fluency. He requested that we create some type of speaking activity based on the words and phrases we discuss here in the D2V section of each episode. And the result is down to communication.

Down to communication is a short audio file of the sentences Skip, Samantha and I use in our report. that contain the keywords for that episode. The sentences are edited so that you can practice repeating them after us or shadowing what we say.

Shadowing is a great self-study activity that helps you produce English more automatically. It is.

How can listeners get down to communication, Skip?

First of all, you need to be a D2B member. Down to Communication is a members-only product and is only available through the D2B website.

So you can't subscribe in Apple Podcasts or some other podcatcher?

That's right. It is only available on our website, down to businessenglish.com. New D2C files will be posted within a day or two of each new D2B episode.

If D2B is posted on a Monday, D2B members can visit the website and download the D2C on Wednesday.

Yeah, that's right. For those of you who are not members, you can sample Down to Communication by visiting downtobusinglish.com and clicking on the D2C trial link at the top of the page. If you find it useful in your self-studies, become a member and you will get complete access to all new D2C files.

We hope you find D two C beneficial. Okay, shall we get on with vocabulary?

Yeah.

Let me start off with the verb to trigger, which we use several times throughout the report. When you trigger something, you start something or make something happen. In the story I commented that the European Commission had triggered Article 7 against Poland. In other words, the EC had started the process outlined in Article 7.

Can use this verb when you are discussing the rise and fall of market values.

A good example would be Bitcoin. Recently there have been media reports that Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor, had invested$15 million in Bitcoin. Those reports triggered the cryptocurrency to jump to the$17,000 mark.

That is just absurd.

It is crazy.

Next up is the idiom to step on one's toes. When you step on someone's toes, you are invading the space they are standing in.

Not to mention it would probably be a little painful.

No doubt. So idiomatically, when you step on someone's toes, you are getting involved in another person's area of responsibility. And probably they are not very happy about it.

In the story Skip said he was sorry for stepping on my toes for covering a story on the EU.

In other words, I was apologizing for preparing a report on a topic that DES is usually responsible for.

Imagine you're in a sales meeting and your manager looks at you and asks

In your opinion, why isn't our latest product selling well?

Uh well boss, uh I I I don't mean to step on anyone's toes, but in my opinion, the design department let us down. They did not do a very good job and customers are just not interested in this product.

A classic example of politely blaming someone else. I don't want to step on your toes, Des, but you are up with the next word.

Yes, moving on. Let's take a look at the noun precursor. A precursor is something that was in existence and then it led to or influence the creation of the second thing. In the story I commented that the EEC was the precursor to the European Union.

In other words, the European Economic Community led to the formation of the European Union.

Exactly.

Can you give us a business example?

Uh well this might be a little dated, but do you remember my space?

MySpace. Absolutely, I remember. That was the big social media platform that everyone used before Facebook.

That's right. My space is still around, but certainly isn't as popular as Facebook or Twitter. However, you can say that my space was the precursor to Facebook.

And I wonder what Facebook is the precursor to.

I don't know. It's hard to imagine anything coming along and stepping on Facebook's toes at this point. Do you have our next work?

I do. Next is the phrasal verb to fare well.

Oh yes, and we must not confuse this two part verb with the interjection farewell, which is synonymous with goodbye.

Goodbye. No, you shouldn't confuse them. They have the same sound, but the verb is two separate words, and the interjection is one word. The verb to farewell communicates that something has had good luck. To not farewell means you've had bad luck. In the story, I commented that I was not sure how well other countries in the EU had fared. But Poland had been a powerhouse.

In other words, Skip wasn't sure how well other economies had performed after joining the EU, but Poland had done very well.

Des, I didn't ask about your Christmas. How did you fare?

Oh I fared pretty well. I got a new Amazon Kindle. How about you? How did you fare?

I didn't fare that well. I was hoping for new Bluetooth speakers, but in the end only got some clothes. I hope to fare better next year. Ugh.

Poor skip. Finally today we have the idiom to flex one's muscles. When you flex your muscles you are literally squeezing your arms or body in order to show how big your muscles are.

Just imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger showing off his huge arms and chest.

Yes, so idiomatically when you flex your muscles you're showing off just how powerful you are. In the story, Skip reported that as far as the Polish government is concerned. The European Commission only triggered Article 7 to flex their muscles, in other words, to show off how powerful they are.

In our final episode of last year, we discussed how the new Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, had been flexing his muscles as he tried to modernize that country.

And he continues to do so. On January 1st of this year, the Saudi government started to allow private investors to start buying stock in Saudi Aramco. This will have a huge effect on global energy markets and is a precursor to the Saudi economy moving away from oil.

Are you going to get in on that action, Des? Will you invest in Aramco?

Ooh, I'm not sure. But whoever does invest will fare quite well, I believe.

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to be reached more

Thank you for that report on Poland and the EU skip. Very informative.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Des. I hope our listeners did as well. So, what topics are coming up in the future on D2B?

Uh I'm working on a report about the media and fake news.

Oh, I look forward to that. Well, that's all for today, everyone. Don't forget to visit the Down to Business English website and check out our new Down to Communication. Our address is down to business.

Yes, check it out and let us know what you think.

Thanks for listening, everyone. See you next time.

Farewell.

Have a comment or question about today's show? Don't be shy. Visit the D2B website or the Facebook page and post any comments or questions there. Skip, Dez or Samantha will be sure to leave a reply. Want to get even more down to business English? Sign up for the D2B newsletter and receive updates on some of the stories covered on Down to Business English. That's www.down to businessenglish.com Down to Business English. Business news to improve your business English.