POLAND:The European Union is on course to establishing a European day against the death penalty after the new Polish government lifted a veto imposed on the idea by the previous administration.
The news was welcomed in Brussels as a sign of a new era in relations with Warsaw after two difficult years under the Kaczynski government, which blocked the proposal in October, saying that the day should also condemn euthanasia and abortion.
Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper reported yesterday that prime minister Donald Tusk personally intervened after taking office to reverse that position.
"The government has changed. Poland has changed and the decision has changed," Grzegorz Schetyna, Poland's interior minister told Polish press agency PAP.
Irish MEPs have praised the Polish government for its decision.
"Most people recognised the veto as an election stunt of very conservative people," said Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa. "I welcome this decision very much as a sign of the new government's more openness to participation in EU institutions and acceptance of values that underpin the EU such as the abolition of the death penalty."
An opinion poll to be published on Monday in Poland shows that support there for the death penalty, while still high compared to other European countries, has dropped significantly in recent years.
The poll, conducted by Warsaw's Institute for Public Affairs (ISP), shows that 63 per cent of Poles support the death penalty, down from 77 per cent in 2004.
Opposition to capital punishment, according to the poll, has risen from 19 to 31 per cent in the same period.
Poll analysts suggest that the two-year reign of the Law and Justice (PiS) government contributed to a swing away from the idea of tough justice.
"It's a significant change," said Prof Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, head of the ISP. "Even those who support the death penalty said we don't want to be an exception in the European Union any more, that it's not a very pleasant experience."
Poland repealed the death penalty a decade ago as one of many EU accession obligations, but it is still supported by many PiS politicians.
Yesterday's decision allows the EU to join the Council of Europe and human rights organisation Amnesty International in campaigning for worldwide abolition of the death penalty on October 10th next.