ISP holds conference which tries to soften Poland's stance on EU Const itution

All participants of Wednesday's conference of the Public Affairs Institute (ISP) agreed that the Nice Treaty was not everything. "We are only talking about the way votes will be counted, but nobody mentions which decisions will be taken in the EU with the use of the new proposed way of counting the votes. This leaves much room for negotiation," said Jan Barcz, Poland's former ambassador to Austria. According to conference participants, Poland's position in the Intergovernmental Conference during which the EU Const itution would be accepted, caused many controversies. This was due to lack of public debate concerning the issue. "Polish politicians only discuss whether to accept the Constitution or to reject it. One should remember that during negotiations, one never wins or loses in 100%. The result of ne gotiations would be negatively accepted in Poland, if politicians subo rdinate the whole draft to one issue," said ISP head Lena Kolarska-Bobińska. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 4) M.M.