Polish president poised to sign Lisbon Treaty as Klaus remains opposed

POLAND’S president appears poised to sign the Lisbon Treaty in the near future, but his Czech counterpart insists he will resist mounting international pressure on him to ratify the document.

After a close adviser to Poland’s Lech Kaczynski said on Monday that he was in no hurry to initial a treaty for which he has little enthusiasm, another leading aide announced yesterday that he would sign the charter in the coming days.

“There is no hidden agenda, a date just hasn’t been fixed. The right moment and the right context must be picked for the signature,” said Mariusz Handzlik, under-secretary of state in the president’s office.

“It is a matter of days, not weeks,” he said, adding that “on Wednesday it is impossible”.

Polish newspaper daily Dziennik cited another presidential aide, Pawel Wypych, as saying Mr Kaczynski would put pen to paper tonight after visiting Romania.

Czech president Václav Klaus remains the strongest hold-out against the treaty, and shows no inclination to sign the document despite the urging of the Czech prime minister and other EU leaders.

Mr Klaus insists that he must wait for the Czech constitutional court to rule on a complaint against the treaty lodged by his eurosceptic allies, who share his belief that the treaty will transfer too much power from national governments to non-elected officials in Brussels.

“I could not sign the treaty even if I wanted to very much,” Mr Klaus said during a visit to Albania, a country that fears its EU accession hopes could be dashed if the treaty is not ratified.

He said advocates of the treaty were spreading the “untruth” that EU expansion would grind to a halt without it.

“In this respect nothing stands and falls with the Lisbon Treaty,” he said.