Europe

Poland wants to significantly change EU treaty

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-06-12 01:14

Poland wants to significantly change the shape of the EU constitutional treaty, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski told reporters here Monday after a meeting with visiting Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer.

The Polish prime minister recalled that the square root voting system was not invented by Poland but stressed that it was the best one as it is the most democratic.

Voting system should have "a strong democratic foundation," the Polish prime minister said, and added that "if many countries, including Poland, have to accept a far-reaching weakening of their position, then this must be justified."

"The EU should be built on more democratic and clear rules than it is envisaged now. We are convinced that the Brussels summit can prepare such mandate that it will make it possible to discuss and settle the entire thing in a year," Polish PAP news agency quoted Kaczynski as saying.

We believe that the EU summit will be successful, he added.

Chancellor Gusenbauer recalled that Austria had ratified the constitution and wants it to be adopted in its today shape.

He added that it was necessary to quickly reach agreement on the EU constitutional treaty on the EU forum.

The chancellor stressed that the EU summit this June should adopt a mandate for an Intergovernmental Conference, so that it could adopt the treaty by the end of 2007.

The Austrian chancellor stressed that the current treaty was a compromise. And the most significant goal was to make it possible for Europe to function. Two or three more years of discussion are totally unnecessary, the Austrian chancellor said and added that EU nations did not want a discussion on the treaty to continue.

The EU summit devoted to the constitution is to be held in Brussels between June 21 and 22.

The proposed double majority voting system in EU constitution, under which most decisions would need the backing of 55 percent of member states with at least 65 percent of the EU population, is criticized by Poland. The Polish government fears that this system would make it less influential in the 27-member bloc.

Poland proposed a modification to the system, calling it " square root," which refers to the square root of the population sizes. It would narrow the weighing between the biggest and smallest countries.

France has a population of nearly 63 million and Poland has 38 million people. But if a square root calculation was applied, the ratio between the two countries would be far narrower.