Premier van Polen vanuit het ziekenhuis naar Brussel (en)

The Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, injured in a helicopter crash last week, has decided to leave hospital and arrive for a two-day EU summit where Poland along with Spain, is set to fight for keeping the voting rights agreed by the Treaty of Nice.

Yesterday for the first time after the helicopter crash Mr Miller left the Warsaw hospital to attend a cabinet meeting in a wheelchair. "We are determined to seek acceptable solutions for all participants in the conference", he told the ministers.

The Prime Minister's decision ended speculation that the President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, would replace him at the EU gathering.

Poland, along with Spain, is insisting on keeping the voting system, devised at Nice in 2000, which gave them 27 votes each in a future Council of Ministers, just two less than Germany and France.