Friday

29th Mar 2024

Wallstrom backs Warsaw on constitution energy clause

EU communications commissioner Margot Wallstrom has backed Poland's bid to include solidarity on energy shocks in the new EU constitution, but warned Warsaw to leave the voting system alone or risk alienating potential European allies.

In an interview with Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza published Friday (16 March), she said "energy crisis" should be added to "natural disaster" or "terrorist attack" as a type of event that triggers the "solidarity clause" described in articles 43 and 329 of the draft constitution.

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The current solidarity clause foresees a commission proposal for an EU state joint position obliging EU members to take "effective action" - including use of military resources - in the event of a crisis, which in this case would mean sharing gas or oil supplies.

"Rising oil and gas prices, rising dependency on countless external suppliers, climate dangers - all this will impact the lives of Europeans," Ms Wallstrom said. "These issues cannot be handled at national level. They have to be reflected in the new treaty in the context of the 'solidarity clause' referring to security of supply."

The commissioner went on to say the European Commission would like to see a "shorter, more readable" treaty which concentrates on "innovative" concepts such as: climate change, sustainable economic growth, citizens' petitions and a citizens' right to more information on EU policy-making.

"We need a 'treaty-plus' not a 'mini-treaty'," she explained, adding "we should probably look for a new name" for the document due to the "problematic" connotations of the word "constitution" in anti-federalist EU states.

But the Swede warned Poland not to try and change the core of the draft constitution - the so-called "double majority" voting system - which assigns more weight to national populations and which would make it easier for the EU's biggest state, Germany, to force through or block EU projects in the teeth of smaller states such as Poland.

Voting system is Pandora's Box

"If you open this issue, then other countries may wish to open other issues," the Swedish commissioner told the biggest Polish newspaper. "It's also important to know where and in what ways Poland can find allies for its proposals among the 26 other member states."

Poland's chief negotiator on the constitution, Marek Cichocki, said four weeks ago "There is broad political consensus in Poland that this double majority system in the present constitution is not acceptable," with some Polish pundits speculating Warsaw may put forward a system based on the square roots of national populations or a cap on maximum voting weights instead.

The Czech republic has hinted it may support Poland on voting rights reform, with Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski also saying he sees eye-to-eye with The Hague after meeting his counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende in the Netherlands on Thursday.

"We talked about what has to be changed [in the treaty] and we agreed a lot has to be changed even though there are of course certain differences as to what," Mr Kaczynski said, Polish press agency PAP reports. "The general points of view [of Poland and the Netherlands] are very close, it made me very happy."

But the biggest test of the Kaczynski twins' European vision will come in Warsaw on Friday when German chancellor and current EU president Angela Merkel comes to town.

The German visit will not only tackle constitutional reform, but will also see Ms Merkel try to influence Polish defence policy by arguing that bilateral Polish-US plans to install a US missile shield in Poland should become a NATO project instead.

Ukraine slams grain trade restrictions at EU summit

Restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU could translate into military losses in their bid to stop Russia's war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned EU leaders during their summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Difficult talks ahead on financing new EU defence spending

With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of ending any time soon, EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday (21 and 22 March) to discuss how to boost the defence capabilities of Ukraine and of the bloc itself.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

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