Brits-Poolse alliantie inzake defensie en stemprocedures (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The UK and Poland have formed an alliance to fight their case during the ongoing talks which will decide the character of the EU's Constitution.

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and his counterpart Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz met bilaterally on Monday (17 November) evening to discuss the Constitution.

The following morning, during a general meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss the draft EU Constitution, the two ministers gave a joint press conference to Polish journalists only.

During the press conference, Mr Straw stressed that any compromise on the Constitution should be acceptable to all and if there is no solution then the Nice Treaty is the "default setting".

He also expressed understanding for Poland's position that it has just had a referendum to join the EU based on the Nice Treaty and does not want to directly face another referendum on the Constitution which directly alters its vote weighting.

Right through out the Constitution talks, Warsaw has maintained a hard-line position in favour of the vote weighting contained under the current Nice Treaty - which sees it punch far above its population weight.

At the moment Poland has 27 votes in the Council of Ministers, while Germany, with a far bigger population, has 29 votes.

Quid pro quo?

For their part, the Poles responded positively to Mr Straw's overtures. Mr Cimoszewicz stressed the points where Warsaw and London are in complete agreement - defence and qualified majority voting.

Both countries want NATO to remain the stalwart of European defence and do not want the Alliance to be challenged in any way. Similarly, both countries are against a further extension of qualified majority voting in the new EU Constitution.

The Polish-UK axis comes just after France and Germany have been making significant noises about establishing a `core union' when the EU enlarges to 25 member states next year.

However, Polish sources remain sceptical about the significance of the move. "It would have been better if he [Jack Straw] had told all journalists and not just Polish ones", said one source.