EU treaty undermines post-WW2 order-Polish deputy PM

WARSAW, July 7 (Reuters) The new European Union Treaty is an attempt by Germany to increase its influence in Poland and it undermines the post-World War Two order, Poland's Deputy Prime Minister Roman Giertych said today.

In a speech to colleagues from the nationalist League of Polish Families, a junior party in the coalition government, Giertych said by adopting the new treaty, Poland would lose its sovereignty and fall under a ''European legal system, mostly controlled by Germans''.

That he explained would make it possible for German citizens to win claims for their pre-1945 homes in Poland.

''What will happen to our citizens if property questions are handled by EU courts, and EU courts are mainly German courts?,'' he said. ''Whoever tries to undermine the agreements concerning the regained territories (territories assigned to Poland after the war) is undermining the results of World War Two,'' he said.

''The League will do everything that is in its power to prevent the ratification of the treaty.'' The land claims are one of many sources of friction between Poland and Germany, whose relations are at their coolest in years.

Germany has made the deal on the new treaty a top political priority.

Giertych also said if Poland decided to adopt the euro, it would allow Germany to take control over its economy.

''We will not agree to have the euro introduced in Poland and will never allow a bank in Frankfurt (ECB) to have control over our currency.'' ''Is our money to be minted in Frankfurt? Throughout history wars have been fought for the right to mint our own coins.'' Some German claimants have succeeded in regaining pre-war property through civil suits, largely because of ambiguities in Polish land records.

Millions of Germans were forced from their homes by the advancing Soviet army or later by Polish security forces.

Land and property was seized by Polish authorities and given to Poles expelled from the east by the Soviet Union as borders were redrawn after the war. About one third of modern Poland had been German for centuries.

REUTERS SV PM2008