Poland’s square root quest may have more to do with settling old scores

IT’S being billed as the battle of the Summit Queen versus the Polish Twins.

It began months ago and the final round will be in Brussels, probably in the early hours of Saturday.

It is about the bid to redraft the EU constitution, but some, including the German media, believe its roots go back to before the twins were born.

The father of President Lech and Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski had a tough time in the Polish underground army that fought the German occupiers in World War II.

Polish citizens are benign towards the constitution, but their leaders do not wish to give Germany a win on plans to reform the draft document.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has tried to win over the identical brothers. She stood up for them against Russian President Vladimir Putin over the ban on Polish meat and apologised for some German media referring to them as “potatoes”.

But the only quotable response from Prime Minister Jaroslaw was that he would die for the square root mathematical equation he and his supporters have produced to ensure Germany has less votes than its size would warrant in the EU.

They have been love- bombed too by several EU leaders including French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. This week Jaroslaw joined the Czech, Hungarian and Slovak prime ministers in Bratislava.

If anything the attention appears to have hardened their resolve, with Jaroslaw threatening on Monday to veto any compromise that does not comply with Polish demands.

How member countries vote is one of the core parts of the draft constitution and the main focus of Poland’s opposition.

The Irish presidency produced the qualified majority (55% of states representing 65% of the population), again at the request of the Poles.

But seasoned EU diplomats say Poland’s position is not the way to win friends and influence people in the EU. The Poles are as yet unskilled in the art of compromise, although the prime minister is sending his president brother to the summit in the hope he may find an easier solution.

The other new and substantial part of the draft document was the creation of a foreign minister to represent the EU on issues where member states agree to a unified front.

The British, having been staunch supporters of this job, now say it’s a problem.

Whether changing the name of the job will be enough is unclear but Mr Blair wants a document that can be passed by parliament and does not need to be put to the people.

By first light Saturday at the latest Ms Merkel will hope to have agreement on all issues.