Ireland and Poland get 'opt-out' option on EU rights charter

Two additional member states have left the door open to opt out of a charter boosting the civil and social rights of EU citizens, it has emerged from the small print contained in the recently agreed outline for a new EU treaty.

A report in today's Irish Times newspaper says that both Ireland and Poland have kept open the option of joining London, which secured a strong protocol limiting the application of the charter in the UK.

At the end of the long declaration on the charter, th...