05/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - "Poland, which is soon to be a member of the Union, prefers the Treaty of Nice to the draft Convention. What a surprise! An explanation among friends". It is thus that the "letter to a Polish friend" begins from the former Permanent Representative for Belgium to the EU, Philippe de Schoutheete, published on 25 October in La Libre Belgique. While noting that the percentages of votes in Council "are of only relative importance" as the Council "rarely votes" (in perhaps only 10% of cases), Ambassador de Schoutheete notes: the Treaty of Nice gives Poland 27 votes out of 345, i.e. 7.28%, whereas the draft Convention gives it 8% of the votes (Ed.: but the calculation of the Polish also concerns something else: the possibility of having a blocking minority). While Belgium - which accepts the draft Constitution - would go from 3.48% to 2.1% of the votes.