Even though an agreement was reached at last week's EU summit, the dispute over voting rights continues. Though the Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski managed to delay the application of new voting laws until 2014, apparently that's not enough in what he sees as a threat to Polish influence in the European Union.
Of course, EU leaders have been quick to state that there should be no more argument over this closed matter. The new holder of the rotating EU presidency, Prime Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal, has agreed with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that they cannot allow a matter that has already reached agreement to be reopened. But logic is hardly a match for Kaczynski, who said that Poland would fight for a concession he says it won at the summit, which would give groups of countries without a blocking minority a right to delay EU decisions for up to two years; Kaczynski went as far as saying that this law must be "written down in full, without any omissions," as he told a press conference in Warsaw.
However, issues with the treaty cannot be reopened until the next EU summit; meanwhile, the office of the European Commission president will try to convince Polish leaders to drop the subject and stop making trouble. At the moment, mainly Polish objections are standing between the EU and a new treaty to make things less complicated for the vast bureaucracy, and most European politicians are eager for the treaty to be passed as soon as possible. |