Reforms in Moscow Will Affect Warsaw, Polish Official Says

Poland is looking to changes in the Soviet Union with hope, believing they will provide a new foundation for Warsaw’s own economic and political reforms, Polish government spokesman Jerzy Urban said Monday.

Urban, on his first visit to Britain, said Polish economic reforms are entering a new stage, with the gradual limiting of government subsidies of commodities representing a “decisive step towards the market economy.”

He told a news conference that political change can be seen in the formation of a consultative council to advise Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski, the impending creation of an office to protect human rights and a promised but unspecified reform of electoral law.

“With much interest and hope the Polish government watches the changes in the Soviet Union,” Urban said. “We believe that our reforms are convergent with those in the Soviet Union.”

“We believe that the changes in the Soviet Union . . . will produce a new foundation for the Polish reforms.”

The Polish government, facing pressure from a weakened but still active opposition, has emerged as one of the most outspoken East Bloc proponents of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s recent moves to promote greater economic efficiency and release dissidents from imprisonment.