Polish Pm Snubs Gordon Brown Over Economy

Gordon Brown endured another slight from an international leader yesterday when the Polish prime minister said his country would not follow the UK's plans for tackling the economic downturn.

At a joint press conference with Brown, Donald Tusk criticised proposals to increase public spending and questioned governments that had allowed the role of credit within their economies to expand.

"It's not for me to comment but a Polish government at a time of financial crisis behaved with full responsibility in terms of its public funds and the budget deficit," Tusk told reporters.

"After a few months our economic and financial policy has been accepted - the government made the assumption that the method to cope with the financial crisis was not to increase public expenditure but the availability of public finance.

"Effective supervision of banks and sticking to the rules, not exaggerating with living on credit - these are the most certain ways to avoid financial crisis."

Tusk leads the center-right Civic Platform party and would be expected to sympathize with the position of Britain's Conservative party, which has opposed spending above the so-called automatic stabilizers that allow for greater welfare spending at a time of reduced tax receipts. His comments reflect the growing confidence of the movement against increased spending as a means of dealing with the recession. Before the G20 meeting in London this month Brown called for the "biggest fiscal stimulus the world has ever seen".

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, exploited the comments at Treasury questions in the Commons. "Today we have the prime minister getting a lecture in prudence while he is in Warsaw. We are used to Polish builders telling us to fix the roof when the sun is shining but not the Polish prime minister as well."

The apparent slight by Tusk comes after the Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, said at a joint press conference with Brown in Santiago last month that Chile was doing relatively well because it had reduced its debt levels during boom years, echoing David Cameron's criticism of Brown.

On Monday, Downing Street denied any offense was caused when the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, pulled out of a joint press conference with Brown, sending his prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, instead. Gilani appealed for the British government to halt plans to deport 11 Pakistani students arrested and then released without charge during anti-terror raids earlier this month.

Poland's economy expanded by 4.8% last year and is celebrating 12 consecutive years of economic growth. Alistair Darling, the chancellor, has predicted a 3.5% drop in GDP this year, and a budget deficit of 12% of GDP.

Brown later made his first visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Britain announced its intention to create an award for individuals who helped protect Jews during the second world war and pledged to allocate money to fund crucial maintenance work at the Auschwitz camp. In February, Tusk wrote to European leaders calling for the creation of a €120m (£108m) fund to pay for the upkeep of the site. Brown wrote in the Auschwitz visitors' book: "What we have seen this afternoon is a harrowing testament to the murder of so many who suffered the extremes of terror. What has happened here is a shared human story, a perpetual reminder of all the darkness of which the world is capable, but also a story of what the world can endure and survive.

"In this place of darkness, I reaffirm my belief that we all have a duty, each and every one of us, not to stand by but to stand up against discrimination and prejudice. As we remember the worst of our past, we must each commit ourselves to serve the best of our future."