Brussels, 19/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Following the visit of Angela Merkel to Poland, Polish president Lech Kacznski declared that his country would sign the Berlin Declaration on Sunday 25 March, despite the absence of any reference to Europe's Christian roots. Kacznski also indicated that he would accept the current Constitutional Treaty as the basis of the work for new discussions on the future EU treaty. On Saturday he declared in an interview to the public television channel TVP3, “We have reservations over some parts of the declaration, but if Poland did not sign it, we would be the only country in the EU not to do so. It would be imprudent not to sign”. He did, however, regret that France, “and other countries, like Belgium, for example” are opposed to the reference to Europe's Christian roots and stated, “I regret this because we should not deny this historic evidence”.
Mr Kaczynski also declared that Poland would agree to consider the draft Constitution as the “staring point” for work on a new treaty for the EU. He explained that, “Up till now Poland had wanted a new constitution from the ground up” but was keen to point out that, “it is quite obvious that we do not want to say that the current text and the text of the future constitutional treaty will be identical”. In other words, Poland will still continue to oppose the “double majority” system in planned for the constitutional treaty.
Meanwhile, Commission vice president, Margot Wallström, affirmed in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza on 16 March that she would support the Polish demand to introduce a “solidarity clause” on energy issues, in the future EU treaty. The Commissioner affirmed that the EU needed a, “Treaty+” rather than a “mini treaty” and appealed for new “innovative elements” to be added to the text (climate change, energy security, sustainable development, etc.) and said that the existing solidarity clause should be expanded (Articles 43 and 329 in the draft Constitution) to energy security problems that a member state could encounter in the future. On Tuesday a Commission spokesperson asserted that, “this is the opinion of Ms Wallström. At this stage, it is still not the Commission's position”, which it has still not officially formalised for future institutional negotiations. (hb/aby).