Warsaw, 11/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Polish government closely followed the Nice negotiations on institutional reform, mainly because, at a given moment during the discussion, one of the Presidency's proposals attributed to Poland a number of votes (26) that was lower than for Spain (28). The Polish Government had issued a press statement on Saturday affirming that the rules governing the way the Union works must be founded on principles of equality, and that, consequently, Poland must have identical treatment to Spain within the Council, given that the demographic potential is identical.
In Nice, the "Polish cause" was vigorously defended by Germany, and Mr Prodi on several occasions defended the interests of candidate countries ("keeping an eye on the interests of those absent", said his spokesman). At the end of the day, Poland managed to gain the same treatment as Spain (see previous pages), and Polish Secretary of State for European Affairs, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, declared on Monday morning that his country was "very pleased" with the results of Nice. The preliminaries of an institutional kind to enlargement have disappeared, and the EU may, it is said in Warsaw, now focus on bringing accession negotiations to a successful conclusion. Poland, for its part, will assume its responsibilities and make an active contribution to making the enlargement process move forward.