France, Spain, dig in heels vs Poland on EU treaty

Luxembourg, June 18: France and Spain will not give in to Polish demands for more voting power in a new European Union treaty, the two states said in a joint move days before a crunch summit on revamping EU institutions.

''We have some problems with Poland but we hope to overcome them,'' Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers to prepare the summit.

Warsaw wants to redraw EU voting rights, arguing that 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.

The text agreed jointly by France and Spain at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg stated that both wanted to keep the arrangements on re-weighting EU votes as set out in the stalled constitution.

Both countries also want a deal on scraping vetoes in more areas to be kept, Moratinos said yesterday.

''We are going to insist because that's the main substantial difference with the previous treaties,'' he told a news conference.

French and Dutch voters rejected an EU constitution in 2005, while Spanish voters backed it. A June 21-22 Summit of EU leaders aims at kicking off new talks to replace the constitution.

''A country which said no in a referendum, namely France, and a country which said yes, Spain, both interested in ...

getting the EU out of the impasse, agreed on a joint basis,'' a Spanish diplomat said.

Moratinos said France and Spain also agreed that a charter of fundamental rights should be legally binding, a step that Britain opposes.

They also want an EU foreign affairs minister and a president of their European Council (summits) that would replace the current six-month rotating presidency of the EU.

Reuters>