POLAND: Mr Pat Cox, the president of the European Parliament, will call on the Polish Prime Minister, Mr Leszek Miller, to agree a compromise on the European constitution when they meet in Warsaw this morning.
However, Mr Cox has said that other countries besides Poland also need to move on the controversial vote weighting issue that brought down December's summit in Brussels.
Mr Cox said he has the "deepest respect" for the Polish debate on the constitutional treaty but criticised the so-called "Nice or Death" position to retain at any price the voting deal won under the Nice Treaty.
"This position - Nice or Death - is dramatic but it is not very helpful," said Mr Cox on Saturday evening in Warsaw. He was in the Polish capital to receive an honorary "Oskar" award from the Polish Business Club, previous recipients of which include Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
"Any talk of death recalls for me what I call the old Europe. Old Europe was a place that killed itself through war and ideology. More than most nations you know the huge cost paid for such a Europe," he told the Polish audience.
Warsaw is anxious to retain the 27 Council of Ministers votes it was granted under the Nice Treaty while Germany, granted 29 votes under Nice, wants votes reweighted in the future to reflect population size.
Mr Cox received a rapturous, one-minute standing ovation on Saturday night in the Royal Palace in Warsaw's old town, both rebuilt stone by stone from the rubble of the second World War.
He told several hundred guests in the palace's Hall of Mirrors that it was appropriate that Poland's EU accession should come as the country marks the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
"During the Warsaw Uprising you were left to stand alone. I hope after May 1st this year that we will always and forever stand together, shoulder to shoulder and that Polish Europeans will never stand alone again."
He warned that EU accession would not signal "the arrival of heaven on earth" but said he hoped that an EU of 25 states would be a place of "creative reconciliation and conflict resolution".
Prof Danuta Hüber, the Polish Minister for Europe, said the Polish government never agreed with the "Nice or Death" position, first voiced by an opposition leader.
"The whole European integration process came about because we didn't want more death in Europe," she said.
But Warsaw would only agree to a formula acceptable to all present and accession member-states, she said.
"I think it is clear that we will reach an agreement soon, I think for us during the Irish presidency. Ireland, as a small country, will present good-quality work, that is the experience of small countries in the EU."
Ms Hübner, recently appointed Poland's future EU Commissioner, said she had an "extremely good relationship" with Mr Cox, who has been mentioned as a possible future Commission president.
Mr Jozef Oleksy, the Polish Interior Minister and former prime minister, said: "Pat Cox hasn't reached the end of his activities in Europe and we will meet him again in many future occasions on the European level."
The president of Poland, Mr Aleksander Kwasniewski, called Mr Cox a "great friend of the Poles and Poland", praising him in a letter of congratulations for his "great achievements on overcoming the division of Europe".