Poland Rejects Compromise Over EU Treaty

WARSAW - Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Friday he feared there may be no compromise at a European Union summit on a treaty to reform the bloc's institutions.

Speaking live on Polish television as his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, was presenting Warsaw's response to a German presidency compromise proposal in Brussels, he said: "We have hit a wall."

"The lack of any willingness to back down is very clear on the side of our partners and I am afraid there may be no way out...I am very sorry about that," he said.

Poland was and still is ready to compromise but "one cannot give way all the time," he added.

A senior aide to the prime minister was quoted as saying Poland could not accept the compromise on the voting system that was on the table but he did not exclude further negotiation.

"The Polish side cannot accept the proposals, what is now on the negotiating table," Andrzej Sados, a minister in the prime minister's office, told the PAP news agency.

The Polish president gave Poland's response in Brussels to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, chairing a summit of the 27-nation bloc already into its second day.

EU diplomats in Brussels said the comments did not signal a breakdown in the negotiations but appeared to be tactical rather than Warsaw's last word.

"We are waiting for a clear answer from the Poles," French President Nicolas Sarkozy's spokesman said.

Diplomats said Poland had been offered a delay to 2014 in the introduction of the so-called double majority decision making procedure, with a mechanism for states just short of a blocking minority to postpone a vote for further negotiations. 

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