WARSAW — Many of Emmanuel Macron's ideas to save the European Union carry a cost — and Poland worries that it will foot the bill.

The new French president wants to rebuild the EU around the core of the eurozone — a club to which Poland doesn't belong — and is campaigning strongly to reduce competition from low-wage workers in Central Europe — something many Western Europeans dub "social dumping." That could hurt everything from Poland's burgeoning trucking sector to its ability to lure manufacturers to build new factories in the country.

The problem for Warsaw's ruling right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), currently embroiled in various public spats with Brussels, is that its leverage with Paris and in the EU as a whole seems to be on the wane.

"[Macron's] presidency brings real threats. It can facilitate Poland's marginalization in the EU — under this [Polish] government, as well as press ahead with a multispeed Europe that leaves Eastern Europe behind," said political commentator Jakub Majmurek from Krytyka Polityczna, a left-wing journal.

During Macron's election campaign Poland was an issue, but not in a good way. Macron visited a Whirlpool factory to denounce Western European companies decamping for lower wage countries like Poland.

Macron's effort to revamp the EU poses a larger danger for Poland.

Macron enraged the Polish government by listing Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of PiS and the country's de facto ruler, as an ally of his nationalist opponent Marine Le Pen together with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Macron also promised that within three months of being elected he would urge the EU to impose sanctions on Poland if it continued to breach democratic norms. Brussels has been at odds with Warsaw over the Polish government's attack on the country's top constitutional court and its refusal to relocate refugees.

A unifying Europe

Macron's effort to revamp the EU poses a larger danger for Poland. The new French president has made it clear he favors a multispeed Europe based on deepening integration among eurozone members, going as far as having a separate eurozone budget, finance minister and parliament. That could mean less cash and influence for eastern countries like Poland which don't use the common currency.

“If the EU wants to begin to create its own political structures, such as having a finance minister or a common budget, or if the eurozone sets up an investment program only for member countries, then the EU is split,” Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said in a recent interview with the German media. “That is very dangerous. This could mean the end of the European Union.”

Macron also hinted at restrictions on EU labor mobility to protect French workers. The European Commission is updating its mobility package which includes tougher restrictions on cheaper Central European truckers being able to work in Western Europe, insisting they be paid the local minimum wage if they spend more than three days out of their home countries. That's a threat to Poland, which controls about a quarter of the EU road transport market.

"We need a Europe which protects people," Macron said during a meeting last week with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. "Europe should put an end to social dumping."

Warsaw has also done its share to downgrade ties. Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz last year unexpectedly called off a $3.5 billion deal to buy 50 Caracal military helicopters from French-based Airbus. Enraged former French President François Hollande retaliated by calling off a visit to Warsaw.

The French are unlikely to forget the slight. The French defense minister at the time, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said the French side was "very angry" and that Poland behaved "in an unacceptable manner." Le Drian has stayed on as a foreign minister in Macron's new cabinet.

Poland's Deputy Defense Minister Bartosz Kownacki further stirred the controversy by alleging the French had learned how to use forks thanks to Poles.

That's all put Polish-French ties in their deepest funk in many years. Poland wasn't even invited to a March summit of the EU's largest countries in Versailles to plot a post-Brexit future for the bloc.

"The French should invest more soft power here [in Poland], like the Germans do" — Zdzisław Krasnodębski, PiS MEP

Warsaw seems to recognize the need for allies in a rapidly changing EU.

President Andrzej Duda, sometimes seen as the moderate face of PiS, has called for a revival of the Weimar Triangle format — a grouping of France, Germany and Poland formed a quarter century ago that has been quiescent in recent years. Duda met on the sidelines of the recent NATO leaders' summit in Brussels with Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The three are slated to hold a formal meeting in August.

That one meeting is going to have to be enormously positive to undo months of static on the line between Warsaw and Paris.

PiS MEP Zdisław Krasnodębski told POLITICO that Poland was interested in deeper EU cooperation on energy, the common market, a common European defense under the NATO umbrella and addressing the threat from Russia. He warned such cooperation should happen without the "demonization" of Poland and that his government was interested in EU reform that would return some competencies to national capitals.

"We should give Macron a chance," Krasnodębski said. "We would like to see the Weimar Triangle really functioning and we would like to have a France more active in our region, not only economically but also culturally. One of the big problems of Europe is that France has left Eastern Europe. The French should invest more soft power here, like the Germans do."