Poland vows softer EU stance after tough summit

BRUSSELS, June 23 (Reuters) Poland vowed to cooperate better with key European Union allies after winning concessions from the bloc today on a new EU treaty, saying its tough negotiating stance had improved its position in the bloc.

Poland held up a deal on a mandate for a new treaty to overhaul the 27-nation bloc from early yesterday to win some more voting power at the bloc's meetings, but its president signalled Warsaw might now be less combative.

''After today, Poland is capable of much better cooperation with France, Britain, and also Germany, because we experienced solidarity,'' President Lech Kaczynski told a news conference.

France and Britain helped broker a deal with EU president Germany that allowed Poland to keep bigger voting clout in the bloc for longer than originally envisaged.

''If solidarity will be required from Poland, we will show it,'' he added.

Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga dismissed suggestions that Poland's tough stance at the summit would worsen the country's already tarnished image in the EU.

Poland's conservative government - led by Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president's twin brother - has a Eurosceptic reputation after trying to block several EU deals. It has also faced allegations of tolerating xenophobia while being intolerant towards homosexuals.

''Our position is enhanced after this summit. I am sure the heads of state are accustomed to this kind of negotiation, they value hardcore negotiations,'' Fotyga told the conference.

BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS Poland's key victory was putting off until 2017 the full application of the new decision-making procedure in the treaty that is due take effect by mid-2009.

Kaczynski said the delay could help Poland achieve better results in negotiations on the EU's next long-term budget starting in 2013.

The new voting system will be based on a double majority -- 55 per cent of EU states and 65 per cent of population needed for a decision -- strengthening the position the biggest member states such as Germany and France.

The current complex voting system is beneficial for Poland as it gives the country 27 votes in the EU's decision-making council, compared with 29 votes for Berlin, although Germany's population is twice as big as Poland's.

''The financial perspective (long-term EU budget) is agreed by unanimity, but various regulations that accompany it by qualified majority,'' said Kaczynski, explaining why it was worth fighting so hard the keeping the current voting system.

But many diplomats have expressed doubts over the real importance of the voting system as EU members always try to reach a decision by consensus and votes are held rarely.

One diplomat said that some EU member states, notably Germany, may have been irked by Kaczynski's reference to World War Two at the summit more than by his tough negotiating stance and calls for consultations with his twin brother in Warsaw.

''World War Two was a fact ... There is no reason to censor it.

It is fact that had there not been the war, Poland would not have 38 million people, but many more,'' Kaczynski told the conference, refusing to acknowledge that mentioning the war at the summit might be inappropriate.

REUTERS GP BD1145