Poland is becoming more friendly toward the idea of an EU constitution, with new foreign minister Anna Fotyga set to give broad backing to the project at a gathering of EU foreign ministers in Klosterneuburg, Austria on 27 May Rzeczpospolita reports.

The EU needs a new constitution-type treaty but the existing draft text needs to be overhauled, Ms Fotyga plans to say according to unnamed diplomatic sources.

Some of the changes that Warsaw would like to see include dropping the preamble which makes no reference to Christian values; softening wording on the primacy of EU law over national law and inserting statements to protect the existing legal competences of member states.

“We have to go forward, before Lepper and Giertych gain sway in Polish diplomacy. That’s why prime minister Marcinkiewicz is talking of adopting the euro and the president is smoothing out his position on the constitution,” the paper quotes a government source as saying.

Eurosceptic leftist Andrzej Lepper from the Self-Defence party and eurosceptic rightist Roman Giertych from the LPR party recently joined a Polish government coalition.

Mr Lepper has altered his act since climbing the rungs of power, analysts and diplomats say, but Mr Giertych and his LPR colleagues continue to embarrass Warsaw on the EU scene with strongly conservative opinions on gay rights – dubbed “homophobic” by Green and Liberal MEPs.

Contacts in Warsaw played down Rzeczpospolita’s revelations, saying the Austria conclave will generally discuss extending the so-called period of reflection after the French and Dutch “no” votes last year and the possibilities for institutional reform.

“Don’t get too excited. We’re not working on a plan for Poland to relaunch the constitution or anything of that sort. The debate simply isn’t about that,” the government official told this news-site.

“We’re not in a rush to tackle the constitution. We don’t want to accelerate this process [the period of reflection].”

But the high-level official did point out that the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski’s “rhetoric has changed” on the constitution, with recent speeches stressing European solidarity compared to comments that the charter is “dead” three or four months back.

New direction

Rzeczpospolita speculates the new Polish government is trying to compensate for Mr Lepper and Mr Giertych’s elevation with a set of pro-European policy shifts, although some Polish diplomats say the two personalities have not made an impact on foreign policy thinking.

Prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz on Wednesday put forward a tentative 2011 euro zone entry date for Poland after avoiding the issue for months.

Poland earlier this week offered troops for the EU Congo mission and opted to join an EU code of conduct on arms purchasing, despite earlier arguing its defence sector could not compete with larger western firms under the scheme.