Poles are in position to gain ground on treaty

Poland’s Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga arrived in the Portuguese seaside town on Viana do Castelo last Friday (7 September) with a shopping-list of changes for the reform treaty. Late on Friday evening the Polish parliament confirmed that elections would be held on 21 October, two days after EU leaders are meant to finalise the new treaty.

EU politicians are ruling out changing the date of the informal summit to be held in Lisbon to agree the new text as they play down concern that the Polish government, a few days ahead of elections, might not be able to endorse a new treaty. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said last week: "I really do not expect, even if there are elections in one of our countries, to change the calendar."

The risk of not getting a deal in October should not be overstated, but the prospect of imminent elections means that the Polish government is well placed to win at least some of the concessions it is asking for.

UK Liberal Democrat Andrew Duff, one of the three MEPs on the inter-governmental conference drafting the treaty, said: "The Poles are in a very strong position."

Fotyga’s latest request on Friday was to keep unanimity for decisions by the board of directors at the European Investment Bank (EIB), which would have moved to qualified majority voting under the constitution and the draft reform treaty. Poland is concerned that the EIB could fund major energy infrastructure projects that undermine its security interests such as the Baltic pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea to bring gas from Russia to Germany and western Europe, bypassing Poland.

This demand comes on top of a request to increase the number of advocates-general at the European Court of Justice from eight to nine, so that Poland has a greater chance of representation.

Fotyga also confirmed that Poland wanted to sign up to the protocol requested by the UK setting out that the Charter of Fundamental Rights would not create new rights in national law. Duff said that while the UK had a problem with potential social rights that the charter might promote, Poland was concerned that the charter might give legal support for more liberal sexual and reproductive rights. But Poland was not worried about the charter’s possible implications for social rights. "The EU’s social dimension was very important for Solidarity [the anti-Communist trade union movement] and the liberation from Communism," Duff said.

But Duff said that Poland’s stance on the charter was "confused" because Fotyga, while stating that she wanted to join the UK in limiting the scope of the charter, was also being positive about an "escape clause" proposed by MEPs. This would allow countries which had opted out of the charter to opt back in without having to go through a new inter-governmental conference.

Poland is also insisting that the revised Ioannina mechanism, which would allow countries that do not have enough votes to form a blocking minority to delay decisions, should be written into the main text of the treaty rather than being a separate declaration. But this is still opposed by the majority of EU countries, concerned that this would make the instrument more mainstream.

The election campaign in Poland kicked off at the start of this week. While the ruling Justice and Law Party (PiS) of the two Kaczynski brothers is widely seen as more hostile to the EU than its nearest political rivals, the free-market Civic Platform (PO) led by Donald Tusk, and the social democrat Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), Civil Platform politicians such as MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski have been almost as outspoken in insisting on the revised Ioannina mechanism. The poor international standing of the ruling PiS is not reflected in the govern-ment’s domestic reputation. Opinion polls from the end of last week put the Kaczynski twins slightly ahead of Civic Platform for the first time. Despite hostility between different political camps, whichever party wins on 21 October will have to rely on other parties to form a governing majority. In such a closely fought contest, no party will want to be accused of failing to defend Polish interests in the treaty negotiations. Poland may not get all the changes to the treaty from the wish- list it presented in Portugal on Friday. But other EU leaders will have to make some concessions to ensure that Poland signs off the new treaty in October.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga arrived in the Portuguese seaside town on Viana do Castelo last Friday (7 September) with a shopping-list of changes for the reform treaty. Late on Friday evening the Polish parliament confirmed that elections would be held on 21 October, two days after EU leaders are meant to finalise the new treaty.