Brussels, 10/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, Polish President Lech Kaczynski set out his country's position on several points in the future European Treaty. In an interview with Le Monde on 10 May, he once again rejected the “double majority” (55% of member states, with a minimum of 15 states, and at least 65% of the EU population) as planned in the Constitutional Treaty. “We will not accept the voting system currently being proposed. For Poland, this issue is of critical importance,” he said, and he went on to say that there was “a huge difference” between the current Treaty of Nice, which is particularly beneficial to Poland, and the double majority, “which would see Germany as the main winner”, while “the one to lose most would be Poland”. “No country could approve this,” he concluded. Mr Kaczynski also reaffirmed his opposition to a future “European Foreign Minister”. Poland believes that EU foreign policy “is already a reality”, but that it is influenced and governed by the “two or three strongest states in the Union”. Creating a European Minister of Foreign Affairs would not change this situation, and it would further restrict the small states' freedom of action on foreign policy, Mr Kaczynski felt. “If the post of foreign minister were created, the most powerful EU states would continue to conduct an independent foreign policy, while the weakest states would see their freedom to act reduced to nothing”. He said he was, to a certain extent, open to use being made of qualified majority voting in the Council, “but not as it is being proposed in the present constitutional project”.
The Polish president also said he was against a “European state”, preferring the EU to remain “a very close union of independent states”, which, nonetheless, he said, should seek closer integration to be able to act more effectively in areas like climate change and research. The EU should also be more energetic in defending its interests on the international stage, he opined. “The Union should have tools to enable it to act much more strongly. I am speaking about physical strength, about a European army … It should be possible to send European troops to scenes of conflict or sensitive areas. I am thinking about Lebanon, for example”. (hb)