Warsaw, 22/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - With the German presidency looking to breathe life back into the Constitutional Treaty and aiming to have a new Treaty in place for the European elections in 2009, Poland would prefer to see additional time given to resolve the EU's institutional problem. “We don't see the EU suffering an institutional crisis, but we are conscious that some member states do not share this optimistic point of view,” Marke Cichocki, the adviser to President Lech Kaczynski on European affairs, told journalists visiting the Polish capital on Wednesday 21 February. “If we need longer (to adopt a new text: Ed.), it's not a tragedy,” he said, adding, “2011 would be even better because that's when we hold the EU presidency” of the Council.
While the Treaty of Nice, which currently applies, gives Poland as many votes as Spain, and almost as many as Germany and France, in the European Council, it “is not the best solution” and must be reformed, Mr Cichocki thought. President Kaczynski would, however, prefer a system which would protect the small and medium-sized countries in an enlarged EU. According to his adviser, the Polish president could not accept the principle of the double majority contained in the Constitutional Treaty (which Poland has yet to ratify), which provides for a qualified majority decision in the Council of Ministers dependent on the support of 55% of member states and 65% of the EU population. “In Poland, there is a broad consensus that the current system of double majority is unacceptable, but we want a compromise,” Mr Cichocki said. Warsaw recognises then that the Treaty of Nice has to be reformed, but does not see the issue as urgent.
According to Mr Cichocki, contrary to the position that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been championing, the EU does not need a new treaty to be able to pursue enlargement: “Croatia must not be held hostage to decisions on a new treaty”.
Speaking at the National Forum on Europe in Dublin on Tuesday 20 February, President Kaczynski said he favoured the adoption of a new treaty which had been sufficiently re-worked not to put Polish sovereignty in question. Making light of the institutional crisis since the French and Dutch “no” votes on the draft Constitutional Treaty, he acknowledged that there was a need to put some order back into relations within the EU, and he thought that only the adoption of a treaty not described as constitutional but rather “fundamental” could do this. “Europe is still a Europe of nations,” he added, stressing that Poland had only been “sovereign” since 1989, and was “sensitive” to any initiatives that might limit its sovereignty: “Our country has enjoyed fully-fledged freedom for only some 18 years. It's obvious that we would be sensitive to attempts to limit this freedom”. (eh)