Miller defends stance in EU summit despite recriminations from EU leaders

"The opponents of the Nice Treaty criticized the document's way of counting votes. We said, Let us take all the positive things from the Constitutional Treaty (simplification of treaties, common foreign policy, more power for the European Parliament) and one thing from the Nice Treaty, that is the division of votes. They said "No", so in return they will have only the original Nice Treaty," Miller said in a debate held on the Gazeta Wyborcza website yesterday. He reminded his audience that after the summit, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhoftstadt said that Poland and Spain, "Had shot themselves in the foot". "If somebody did this it is certainly not us," argued Miller. He also revealed that British Prime Minister Tony Blair assured him that, "If any of the proposal separated Poland and Great Britain, he will not support it". (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1; www.onet.pl) A.Z.