Tusk could cling on to rights charter opt-out

The new Polish government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk could keep the opt-out from the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights to ensure that the new reform treaty is ratified by the parliament.

Tusk is considering maintaining a protocol, which limits the scope of the charter and which was negotiated by the previous ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government led by Jarosław Kaczynski, twin brother of the President, Lech Kaczynski.

Two-thirds of Polish members of parliament, or at least 307, must vote for the new treaty to ratify it. The government coalition between Tusk’s Civil Platform and the Polish People’s Party has 240 members in parliament, making it dependent on support from PiS’s 166 members or other nationalist parties to get the treaty through parliament.

Poland’s new Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said on Monday (19 November) that the government had not made up its mind on whether to keep the protocol. Tusk has announced no decision yet and the only indication that the new government would drop the protocol came from Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a Civic Platform MEP. Saryusz-Wolski said on election night (21 October) that the new administration would be "very actively involved in the EU. It will change Poland’s stance on the treaty and thus will adhere to the charter of fundamental rights".

The previous government joined the UK in insisting on a protocol which stresses that the charter does not provide any new legally enforceable rights in national law. It also won a clause stating that it would not affect family law.

EU officials say that to scrap the protocol the Polish government would simply have to request a drafting change, removing Poland from the text of the protocol, before the text is signed on 13 December.

In recent weeks PiS politicians have launched a fierce defence of the protocol, arguing that scrapping it would mean the charter could be used to extend gay and reproductive rights, and make it easier for Germans who lost property in Poland at the end of the second world war to claim compensation.

Polish centre-left MEPs are calling on the new government to sign up completely to the charter and are dismissing PiS warnings about the risks of scrapping the protocol. Last week Polish Liberal MEP Bronisław Geremek and Socialist MEP Andrzej Szejna said that the charter should be "adopted by Poland unconditionally".

The Kaczynski government had "based its negative attitude towards the charter on alleged concerns about the possible legalisation of abortion, euthanasia and homosexual marriages as well as the supposed undermining of Polish citizens’ proprietary rights". But, they said, there was no justification for these concerns in the text of the charter which leaves regulation in these areas to national law.

Tusk has taken a conciliatory stance towards President Kaczynski since taking office and he has suggested that the president accompany him to the signing of the new treaty in Lisbon.

The new Polish government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk could keep the opt-out from the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights to ensure that the new reform treaty is ratified by the parliament.