HOW'D THEY MANAGE TO LEARN NOTHING FROM THE ONLY SUCCESSFUL UNION?:

DIPLOMATIC OFFENSIVE AGAINST A WARSAW VETO: Poland Blocking New EU Treaty (der Spiegel, 6/12/07)

The twin Polish leaders, President Lech and Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, are threatening to use Warsaw's veto unless other EU leaders agree to discuss their proposals for a new voting system within the 27-member bloc. [...]

Poland is opposed to the new qualified majority voting system, arguing that it favors big countries like Germany. The system calls for a double majority representing at least 55 percent of the EU member states and at least 65 percent of the EU population. Even though the system gives Poland relatively generous voting rights -- 27 votes compared to Germany's 29 -- it would rather see votes calculated based on a country's inhabitants in relation to its surface area, the so-called "square root system." Prime Minister Kaczynski has even said it is a system "worth dying for."

In Berlin and other European capitals there is increased resentment about this obstinacy. And there are now growing suspicions among EU officials that the Poles could be deliberately blocking a solution to the treaty problems under Germany's leadership.

Haven't The Federalist Papers been translated into Euro?

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 12, 2007 11:32 AM