Will the Poles compromise?

Who knows? Who even cares at this stage? But, according to Der Spiegel "President Lech Kaczynski indicated that he is not interested in standing in the way of a solution". Whether that means that the Poles have shown a certain reluctance to die for the "square root" method of calculating voting rights on the Council is unclear. President Sarkozy is claiming credit for changint the Polish President's views but even he is not entirely certain as to what this might entail.

Then again, as we have pointed out before, the decision to call an IGC, which is necessary to decide on a new treaty, and the topics for it, will be decided by a simple majority. The vaunted Polish veto is of little significance at this stage.

Still it is good to know that the new French President shows entirely Gallic logic in his attitudes:

Sarkozy himself had made clear what the tenor of his visit was going to be. "Poland cannot block the European Union," Sarkozy told the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza in an interview printed to coincide with his first trip to Poland as French president. "If every one of us shows total intransigence ... the question arises: What are we doing together?"

What indeed?

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