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Heading Towards a Compromise?

From Warsaw Voice

Stagnation in talks over the future European constitution has finally ended. At the March 25-26 EU summit, Poland signaled a willingness to compromise on the principles of the Nice Treaty.

According to leaders of the 25 states which from May 1 will constitute the enlarged European Union, the actual shape of the EU constitution will be agreed upon no later than the June 17-18 summit. The emergence of such a possibility was to a large extent influenced by the new, more flexible stand of Warsaw and earlier of Madrid.

"The atmosphere in Brussels was much better than in December 2003 [during the previous summit at which constitution talks were blocked by the Polish delegation, among others]," said Prime Minister Leszek Miller back in Poland after the summit. The optimism concerning the most controversial article of the Constitutional Treaty draft prepared by the European Convention, specifying the future method of voting in the Council of the European Union, followed the conciliatory statements of the Polish delegation concerning the double majority system of EU states and citizens, previously contested by Poland and Spain.

According to Miller, "compromise is an antonym of surrender." Miller said the terrorist attacks in Madrid necessitated a constitution that acted as a "mechanism making Europe more resistant to various threats." He added that "Spain's evolution in this domain is not insignificant." In his speech directly following the announcement of the official Spanish election results, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister elect, declared a readiness to compromise. His statement led Polish commentators to suggest that Warsaw was left alone in the battle to maintain the Nice principles. It was at this moment that the first clear appeals for Poland to become more flexible were voiced.

"We are not excluding the possibility of reaching a compromise based on the double majority," said Foreign Affairs Minister W³odzimierz Cimoszewicz. "Much will depend on the detailed terms of such a compromise." According to the constitution draft put forward by the European Convention, for a decision to be adopted by the Council of the European Union it would have to gain support from 50 percent of states inhabited by 60 percent of EU citizens. Poland and Spain are unofficially said to be ready to agree to that system if the population threshold is raised from 60 to 64-65 percent. Both countries would than retain the veto option ensured by the Nice voting system.

"The whole political culture of the EU is based on compromise and it's better to compromise than to cause defeat," said Miller. At the same time, he declared that Poland's ultimate approval of the EU constitution should be expressed in a national referendum. The same opinion had previously been uttered by President Aleksander Kwaœniewski.

The stance of the Polish delegation in Brussels was positively evaluated by the National Council of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) meeting held the following day. According to Council members, "the worst scenario would be for Poland to be doomed to a loss of credibility." The Council's resolution expresses belief in the possibility of reaching a compromise which should "represent and guarantee the proper position of Poland."

Poland's departure form the "Nice or death" motto coined by Civic Platform (PO) leader Jan Rokita in the Sejm has been criticized by the opposition, particularly radical parties such as the League of Polish Families (LPR), the Catholic National Movement (RKN) and the Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland (ROP). Representatives of these parties demand that the government immediately explain its change of mind, which they consider tantamount to a betrayal of the national interest. Much seems to indicate that many parties will encourage their members to vote against the EU Constitutional Treaty in the possible referendum.

The issue of the Constitutional Treaty was by no means the only subject of the Brussels summit. The EU states' leaders also undertook to pursue closer cooperation in fighting terrorism and to increase the pace of Europe's economic position in relation to the U.S. They agreed that the EU should increase the pace of reforms and economic modernization if it wants to achieve the Lisbon strategy aim of catching up with the United States by 2010. The summit participants appointed Gijs de Vries, former Dutch minister of internal affairs, as coordinator of the fight against terrorism. The EU states will increase the pace of decisions on introducing passports and visas with computer-encoded fingerprints. They will also introduce an obligation for EU telecommunications operators to keep records of their clients' telephone and Internet connections.

The Polish delegation declared its full support for all summit decisions favoring economic growth and improving EU competitiveness. "We are stressing the problem of various barriers to the free movement of labor," said Miller. However, according to observers, the motion did not obtain the expected support of new EU member states. Although the need to "consolidate a free movement of labor" has been included in the summit's final document, it lacks a clear appeal to open labor markets to citizens of new EU states.

posted by: Oborski at 14:31 | link | comments |