Germans under pressure to give Poles more cash

Germany was under pressure last night to grant more cash to the 10 nations due to join the EU in 2004, as Poland threatened to hold today's summit in Copenhagen to ransom if its demands for more money were spurned.

Polish diplomats showed no sign of withdrawing threats to reject their deal, arguing that, for the Prime Minister, Leszek Miller, to return home without new concessions would be politically disastrous.

Germany, by far the EU's biggest paymaster, has so far refused to countenance an increase in the offer of about €40bn (£26bn) of EU subsidies between 2004 and 2006.

But EU officials are confident that, after some last-minute haggling, a deal will be done. One senior EU official diplomat said: "Germany wants people to know who is paying and to take the credit. Nobody is going to put at risk enlargement."

Although some EU negotiators have accused the Poles of making impossible demands, the war of words from Warsaw was extended yesterday, ahead of today's vital negotiation.

Jaroslaw Kalinowski, the Polish Farm Minister, said the EU appeared to want Poland to capitulate, comparing the situation to that of wartime surrender. "There are minimum limits below which we cannot go," said Mr Kalinowski, calling on the EU to offer bigger milk quotas and fatter direct payments to ensure Poland's farm sector can withstand competition once in the EU. If Poland fails to win more, Mr Kalinowski, who heads the co-ruling Peasants' Party, has threatened to leave the coalition and to campaign against entry to the EU in next year's referendum.

The summit is due to end tonight but few expect a smoothly choreographed conclusion. One source said that it was not acceptable for the country's politicians to "come for supper and for a drink and sell away Polish interests".

"It has to be seen that we have negotiated," said one source, "and that it is not a take it or leave it situation – that it is not humiliation but negotiation."

Poland has led complaints from applicant countries that the deal is more than €2bn short of the ceiling laid down by EU leaders in 1999.

"The last stretch is the most difficult, tiring and dangerous, but the peak is now really within our reach," said Poland's chief negotiator, Jan Truszczynski. "Money is the most important issue, we have known that for a long time."

With unemployment nearing 20 per cent, dismal economic growth and the most recent opinion poll showing Mr Miller's government criticised by 60 per cent of the electorate, the domestic pressure to achieve more is extreme. Polish nationalists and the Eurosceptic right are waiting to denounce the deal as a sell-out and campaign for a "no" in the referendum next year. Even within Mr Miller's coalition some elements want to reject the offer.