Poland was on Tuesday given a thinly veiled warning it risks losing cash and solidarity from other European Union members if it blocks a deal on a new EU "reform" treaty at a Brussels summit starting on Thursday.Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, said it was in the interests of new member states such as Poland to show that the EU's recent enlargement had not stopped the Union taking big decisions."I believe it would be in their interest for them to show that their membership of the EU is not making the Union's life more difficult," he told a press conference in Strasbourg.
Poland was on Tuesday given a thinly veiled warning it risks losing cash and solidarity from other European Union members if it blocks a deal on a new EU "reform" treaty at a Brussels summit starting on Thursday.
Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, said it was in the interests of new member states such as Poland to show that the EU's recent enlargement had not stopped the Union taking big decisions.
"I believe it would be in their interest for them to show that their membership of the EU is not making the Union's life more difficult," he told a press conference in Strasbourg.
Poles to the Rescue It would be easier to root for the Kaczynski brothers if they opposed the European Constitution on democratic principle. But a damsel in distress can't be picky and nor can Europe's citizens. If Poland's maverick twins rescue them from that wretched treaty for selfish reasons, so be it. (...) Old Europe, particularly the holder of the rotating Union presidency in Berlin, is shocked, shocked at the spectacle of a member state asserting its national interests at the EU. Granted, it's usually done more discreetly. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel insists on retaining the voting scheme mooted in the rejected Constitution, it's not because that arrangement gives her country more power. No, of course not. It's because this happens to be best for the rest of Europe. It's eerie how those interests magically align. Some (usually Germans) claim that the Kaczynski brothers are motivated by a visceral dislike of Germany and a desire to spoil Ms. Merkel's EU presidency. Well, the Poles may be emotional, but that doesn't mean they are irrational. Nor that they have forgotten that Ms. Merkel's predecessor, who pushed through a big gas pipeline that circumvents Polish territory, now works for Vladimir Putin. With former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder advising a company majority-owned by Kremlin-controlled Gazprom, Polish concerns about German voting power don't sound so unreasonable. (...) Newly expressed British concerns -- over proposals for an EU foreign minister and a Charter of Fundamental Rights -- are, however, a different matter even though the Prime Minister who is now objecting is the same man who signed the original Constitution. Tony Blair's objections are legitimate, but the Polish concerns are not. Double standards, anyone? All the fake outrage over Warsaw's demands can't hide that the Poles are just following long-established EU tradition of summit brinkmanship. This is, after all, what Brussels is about: horse-trading, petty late-night fights, veto threats, the works.
It would be easier to root for the Kaczynski brothers if they opposed the European Constitution on democratic principle. But a damsel in distress can't be picky and nor can Europe's citizens. If Poland's maverick twins rescue them from that wretched treaty for selfish reasons, so be it.
(...)
Old Europe, particularly the holder of the rotating Union presidency in Berlin, is shocked, shocked at the spectacle of a member state asserting its national interests at the EU. Granted, it's usually done more discreetly. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel insists on retaining the voting scheme mooted in the rejected Constitution, it's not because that arrangement gives her country more power. No, of course not. It's because this happens to be best for the rest of Europe. It's eerie how those interests magically align.
Some (usually Germans) claim that the Kaczynski brothers are motivated by a visceral dislike of Germany and a desire to spoil Ms. Merkel's EU presidency. Well, the Poles may be emotional, but that doesn't mean they are irrational. Nor that they have forgotten that Ms. Merkel's predecessor, who pushed through a big gas pipeline that circumvents Polish territory, now works for Vladimir Putin. With former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder advising a company majority-owned by Kremlin-controlled Gazprom, Polish concerns about German voting power don't sound so unreasonable.
Newly expressed British concerns -- over proposals for an EU foreign minister and a Charter of Fundamental Rights -- are, however, a different matter even though the Prime Minister who is now objecting is the same man who signed the original Constitution. Tony Blair's objections are legitimate, but the Polish concerns are not. Double standards, anyone?
All the fake outrage over Warsaw's demands can't hide that the Poles are just following long-established EU tradition of summit brinkmanship. This is, after all, what Brussels is about: horse-trading, petty late-night fights, veto threats, the works.
Minor kudos for reminding us that othermembers have engaged in brinkmanship before, and for pointing out that the Brits have, to say the least, a schizophrenic attitude to the EU constitutional treaty.
But that contempt for Europe and for Germany... You'd think we're still in 1945 - except that the US government in power back then was a bit smarter. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
