CZECH REPUBLIC/POLAND: A day after rights groups branded both men homophobic, Czech president Vaclav Klaus welcomed his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski to Prague yesterday, where they called for a new EU constitution valuing national sovereignty over deeper integration.
"Neither of us is a fan of this document," said Mr Klaus of the EU treaty rejected by France and the Netherlands last year. "We don't think there should be a total unification, and we fear possible loss of our sovereignty."
Mr Kaczynski added: "It is necessary to start working on a new draft, and the sooner it is ready the better.
"For Poland, the European Union is a great value and it is our success. But that does not mean that sovereignty gained 16 years ago is not of value."
The election victory of Mr Kaczynski and his allies in last autumn's elections brought to power politicians who combine moral conservatism with left-wing economic policies.
Mr Klaus, whose supporters look set to prosper in elections this year, favours pro-free market policies but shares some of Mr Kaczynski's traditional right-wing social values. And both have attracted the fire of Central European homosexuals.
Mr Klaus blocked a Bill this week that would have given gays and lesbians the right to inherit property from their partners and check their medical records, while stopping short of allowing them to get married or adopt children.
Despite criticism from the Catholic Church, the proposal was approved by both houses of the Czech parliament.
But it will now have to obtain an absolute majority of 101 MPs in the 200-seat lower house for the presidential veto to be overturned.
Mr Klaus opposed the Bill as "an unprecedented extension of state regulation to interpersonal relations" and said it unjustifiably copied the model of heterosexual marriage.
Jiri Hromada of the organisation Gay Initiative-Czech Republic described the presidential veto as "a tragic decision from a medieval monarch".
That condemnation came as Human Rights Watch accused Mr Kaczynski of presiding over a policy of "official homophobia".
The rights group said Mr Kaczynski had banned gay parades through Warsaw when he was city mayor, and had said he was "not willing to meet perverts" when asked to discuss the ban with organisers.
Mr Kaczynski's brother, Jaroslaw, the leader of their Law and Justice Party, said recently that gays should not be allowed to teach in schools, while Poland's new prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz has called homosexuality "unnatural".