THE EU: Spain and Poland set up a showdown with larger European powers yesterday, over voting rights for member-states in an enlarged European Union.
They fear changes proposed in a draft European constitution would shift the balance of power to the most populous states, saying three of them would be able to block decisions.
Just days ahead of a crucial meeting on the issue, EU member Spain and Poland - set to join the bloc next year - demanded the 15 current and 10 future EU members respect the Nice agreement on voting rights, reached by consensus in 2000.
The Convention on the Future of Europe, which produced the draft in June, left the unresolved voting rights question for the Inter-Governmental Conference set to begin on Saturday in Rome.
"For Poland, the Nice agreement is not a matter for discussion," Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski told a news conference in Madrid, where he met Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Though the two have few apparent allies, Mr Kwasniewski insisted: "I'm not afraid of us being isolated in (Rome) because there will be three of us: Poland, Spain and the correct position that we have." Their determined stand could complicate efforts to reach agreement quickly in Rome. Mr Aznar ruled out any political negotiations.
"It does no good to enter into some kind of horse trading before the talks even begin. Something like, I'll give you three European parliamentarians in exchange for votes in the European Convention. These things don't belong in serious politics," Mr Aznar said.
A joint Spanish-Polish statement labelled as "pernicious" a proposal by former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing - head of the convention that drew up the draft constitution - to reopen the Nice consensus.
"We're not asking for anything other than that the (Nice) agreement be respected, and those who need to explain themselves are those who believe in breaking up the Nice consensus," Mr Aznar said.
The EU's current system of weighted voting gives Poland and Spain - each with about 40 million citizens - power almost equal to Germany, France, Britain and Italy, all of which have far larger populations.
The convention proposed replacing it with a system whereby most decisions would require a simple majority of member-states representing 60 per cent of the total population. - (Reuters)
Additional reporting by Douglas Busvine in Warsaw