Poland risks ejection from EU over voting system

Most are skeptical that Warsaw could gain anything with such tactics. "We have been debating on a voting system for 15 years, and we finally reached a compromise, so these kinds of proposals are set to be rejected," said Alexander Stubb, a Finnish MEP. Asked what would happen if Poland vetoed the start of the Intergovernmental Conference on the new constitution, an unnamed diplomat said: "Well, 26 countries can also sit together and agree to sign a common treaty. This would mean holding a referendum in Poland on whether its citizens wanted the country to leave the EU." Meanwhile, the government may also struggle to win support for its position in Poland itself. "Civic Platform favors the new voting system, but we differ with the government on other issues," said Bogdan Klich, PO MEP. "We want to strengthen EU institutions, and to broaden the scope of issues decided by majority vote." (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 10) R.M.