POLAND:Poland is on a collision course with its European partners over the relative voting weight it should have when the EU takes decisions. It has also dismissed criticism from MEPs of its treatment of homosexuals and its purge of former communist collaborators from state positions.
Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said yesterday that he wanted to reopen the issue of national voting weights in forthcoming talks on the draft EU constitution.
Following a meeting with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels, Mr Kaczynski said that he was not satisfied with an agreed solution on voting weights contained in the draft constitution.
He said that Poland would continue to propose alternatives.
The voting system agreed in the constitution has a so-called "double majority" system, which requires at least 15 out of 27 EU states, which represent at least 65 per cent of the total EU population, to get a decision through. Moving to this system would involve states such as Poland and Spain giving up some of the voting weight they enjoy under the Nice Treaty.
Poland favours introducing a system which would reduce the voting strength of big countries such as Germany. However, German chancellor Angela Merkel and most EU states have ruled out reopening talks on the voting system.
Meanwhile, Mr Kaczynski rejected suggestions that his government was persecuting homosexuals or conducting a new inquisition.
He said there would be no new law banning homosexuals from teaching in Poland, contrary to media reports. On the issue of former communist collaborators, he said that everyone should be responsible for their crimes.