Merkel Stands Firm In EU Stand-Off With Poland

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood firm on European Union voting rights on Sunday despite dogged resistance from Poland.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood firm on European Union voting rights on Sunday despite dogged resistance from Poland four days before a summit due to launch talks on a new treaty reforming EU institutions.

Speaking to reporters after talks with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Merkel said: "We still have several serious problems to solve before the council."

Asked whether the 27 EU leaders might leave the question of reforming the voting system for detailed negotiations later in the year in the light of Poland's objection, she said: "I do not see that as an option."

Merkel will chair the Brussels summit on Thursday and Friday under Germany's EU presidency, aiming to set political guidelines for a new treaty revamping EU institutions to replace the constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

Asked about her four-hour meeting on Saturday and follow-up telephone call on Sunday with Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the chancellor said: "All I can say is that yes, there were differences, but they were open discussions."

Merkel's comments made clear she was sticking to her guns in refusing to yield to Poland's central demand to clinch agreement on the political outlines of a new treaty this week.

"It is very important to us that the substance of the (constitutional) treaty is preserved," she said.

Kaczynski clung to Warsaw's demands to re-weight EU voting rights, arguing the system in the constitution gives big states, especially Germany, too much power and Poland too little. The Czech Republic alone has given Poland half-hearted backing.

"For now we have not changed our minds, but we are convinced that we need to seek successes (at the EU summit)," Poland's PAP news agency quoted Kaczynski as saying after the talks.

GRIDLOCK

EU foreign ministers met elsewhere in Luxembourg to review the negotiations and set out their final positions before the summit, which could lift the bloc out of two years of political torpor or plunge it deeper into institutional gridlock.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, predicting a long evening, said the aim was to narrow as many differences as possible before the summit.

Asked how Poland's objections could be overcome, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik told reporters: "We will listen. We will understand. But we will not give in and not reopen the institutional balance because this is the very core of the new treaty. This is the motor."

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek reiterated his country's support for Warsaw after meeting Merkel on Sunday.

Topolanek said he had told her Prague was ready to veto any treaty that was too similar to the one voted down by the French and Dutch, but he did not expect this would be necessary.

The Czech leader told reporters he would veto any instance of so-called "exclusivity", where one nation was able to negotiate something purely for its own benefit.

Polish commentators pointed out the word 'veto' did not appear in Kaczynski's remarks -- perhaps a sign that Poland was softening its stance.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said his country wanted only an amending treaty, not a constitution, with a bigger say for national parliaments, and several other changes to take account of Dutch voters' concerns.

Britain said there were still quite strong differences.

"One of the things that is slightly nerve-wracking to be honest, is that it is still far from clear what proposals the German presidency feels able to put," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told BBC television in an interview.

Britain would not accept any requirements to change its social and labour laws, would not put its seat on the U.N. Security Council at risk and did not want to see a treaty that had the characteristics of a constitution, Beckett said.