EU Summit Threat As Poland Hints at Veto

Poland has threatened to wreck this week's EU summit on a new treaty to replace Europe's failed constitution by calling for the reopening of talks on how power is wielded within the union.

Amid the worst row in years between Poland and Germany, which is driving the new treaty and seeking to salvage as much as possible from the defunct constitution, Warsaw made it plain that it could block a deal unless its views were accommodated.

The Poles circulated a document arguing that they wanted a new system of voting in EU councils that balanced the interests of small, medium, and large member states. Isolated in their demand, the Poles signaled they could go it alone against the other 26 members.

"I hope we will not have to use the last resort, a veto," the prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said yesterday.

Under current EU voting rules, Poland has 27 votes, two less than Germany, France, Britain, and Italy. Under the new system based on population size, Germany for the first time in the history of the EU gets the greatest clout.

"It cannot be that a vote of one citizen from one country has double the weight (of) the vote of another citizen of another country," Mr Kaczynski said.

The Polish veto threat is viewed in Brussels as the biggest problem for the summit, despite the deep-seated reservations of the British and others about the new treaty.