Polen vecht voor stevige positie in EU (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With just three weeks before a decisive EU summit on ending the two-year constitutional deadlock, Poland is sticking to three demands - a new voting system, a clear list of exclusive national competencies and an energy solidarity clause - to be part of the deal.

"We want these issues to be included in the mandate for the intergovernmental conference [IGC]," Poland's permanent representative to the EU, Jan Tombinski, said on Tuesday (29 May), referring to the fact the 21 June summit is to agree the negotiation terms for a later IGC, which is to hammer out a new EU treaty in the second half of this year.

In his first public speech after his appointment to Brussels few months ago, Mr Tombinski made it clear Warsaw will not bow to pressure and will continue pushing for new distribution of voting power, effectively "shifting the weight from big countries to medium-size countries."

The Polish diplomat was referring to Warsaw's new voting proposal - the so-called Penrose square root law - which requires at least 14 out of 27 EU states which represent at least 62 percent of national votes, awarded on the basis of square roots of population, to get a decision through.

The current draft constitution foresees a double majority voting system, which requires at least 15 out of 27 EU states which represent at least 65 percent of the total EU population to make a deal. Similar rules exist for establishing blocking minorities to stop reforms from going ahead.

In the rejected constitution Germany has 82 population points and Poland has 38, but in the Penrose scheme, Germany has nine votes and Poland has six.

"Medium size countries are the core of the European project and the best guarantee of a communitarian interest," Mr Tombinski argued, admitting it was a matter of his country's national pride.

According to the diplomat, the Nice treaty - the currently valid EU treaty, under which Germany has 29 votes and Poland has 27 - "invited Poland to play a high-ranking role in the EU_the constitutional draft has been seen as a withdrawal of this invitation."

"This is our main concern," he said.

But Sebastian Kurpas from the Centre for European policy studies questioned Poland's fears, saying EU capitals tend to follow a "consensus-building culture," which means they work toward mutual agreement, while voting is seen as a last resort in the decision-making process.

Poland's suggestion to open the Pandora's box of voting is risky and unlikely to fly, Mr Kurpas added, underlining the fact that no medium size country has so far backed Warsaw's idea.

Ambassador Tombinski was confident his country would not be left isolated during the upcoming EU treaty talks in June. But he himself avoided the word "veto" saying Poland does not want to use the Penrose system as blackmail. "Nobody has the slogan: square root or death. It's just to start a debate on the subject," he said.