Brussels, 22/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 22 June, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (EPP-ED, Poland), who chairs the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, criticised the attempts made to resolve the problem of changing the voting system within the EU Council during the European Council meeting in Brussels on 21-22 June, and considered that it would be preferable to leave this question open. In an interview granted to the state radio of Poland, Mr Wolski said that Poland is entering into a negotiating “trap” instead of seeking to “have the voting system become the subject of the intergovernmental conference”.
Mr Saryusz-Wolski's comments came in response to the proposals presented on Thursday evening by the Polish delegation that pointed out, after the first round of talks on adoption of the negotiating brief for the IGC, that, if there is no solution to take the square root of the size of the population into account, Poland may accept a solution based on postponed application of double majority and keeping the Treaty of Nice in effect, until 2020. According to Mr Saryusz-Wolski, instead of taking decisions “hastily, under pressure” during the European Council, it would be preferable for the Polish delegation to keep to a first premise, namely that of including the question of amending the voting system in the negotiation mandate to be adopted by the EU27 with a view to the intergovernmental conference (see EUROPE 9451). (aby)