Poland will not budge over Nice Treaty and EU Constitution

Another summit of EU leaders were not able to secure an agreement on the shape of the EU Constitution. New proposals of calculating votes in the EU council arose, but none of them won unanimous support. The Polish Prime Minister did not concede on any of the discussed issues, which increasingly irritated the remaining countries. "Nice is a compromise for us," repeated Leszek Miller on Thursday. This did not please other countries who want a Constitution limiting the number of Polish votes in the European Parliament. "This is the only chance to deepen European integration after EU enlargement," said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Estonia and Malta also expressed their support for the Nice Treaty decision. However, Spain, the main ally of Poland, is more eager to reach a compromise. "Nice is not a Bible and so it is not the draft of the Constitution," said Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A7) M.M.