If Jews Can Talk About War Why Can't We?

Poland's prime minister has defended a reference to his country's wartime suffering made during a recent debate over a new EU treaty.

Poland's prime minister has defended a reference to his country's wartime suffering made during a recent debate over a new EU treaty, saying that if Jews were allowed to refer to history Poland should be too.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski made the comments in an interview with Germany's Die Welt newspaper made available before publication in its Friday edition.

He stunned European Union counterparts before a summit last month by suggesting Poland deserved more voting power because its population would have been much larger had it not been for Nazi German occupation during World War Two.

"I am very surprised by some people's view that you can't return to questions of history," Kaczynski was quoted as saying by Die Welt.

"The Jews also return to this question, to the question of the Holocaust," he told the paper. "Does that mean others may do it but not Poland?"

Kaczynski accused Germans of revisionism.

"Germany was not a victim of this war. Germany was the aggressor," he said. "If someone tries to give the impression that Germany's suffering is comparable with Poland's then that is very disturbing."

Kaczynski said on Wednesday Poland would push to get concessions on an EU voting system agreed at the summit in Brussels last month.

Warsaw's insistence threatens to reignite its row with EU partners, who say the treaty mandate was clear and does not need to be discussed again.

Poland says it had verbal agreement from EU leaders to allow countries to delay decisions by up to two years if they do not have quite enough votes to block them, but EU officials say such a delay would be at most for four months.

Kaczynski told Die Welt German Chancellor Angela Merkel had agreed that decisions could be delayed by up to two years.

"Verbal agreements are valid in civil law," he said. "There was a political agreement, a gentlemen's agreement, and as such it must be respected."