Poland and the EU Constitutional Convention

Abstract

In December 2003, during the Italian presidency, the intergovernmental conference (IGC) on the constitutional treaty for the enlarged European Union (EU) failed. One of the countries leading the impasse in the negotiations was Poland. Together with the Spanish representatives, the Polish delegation stubbornly refused to come to a compromise on the new weighting of votes in the Council, as proposed by the Convention. In doing so, the Poles seemed to confirm the expectations about them in many member states, where fears of an unmanageable enlarged EU were increasingly voiced.¹ Before they officially entered the EU, some people believed that the candidate countries from Central Europe (CEC) would indeed behave as anti-federalists after accession. With a sizeable number of Eurosceptical parties in parliament, reflecting increasing Euroscepticism among the population, it was expected that many of them, especially Poland, would defend their sovereignty to a maximum degree and be reluctant to hand over more power to the supranational level. Surprisingly enough, half a year later, in July 2004, two months after the official entry of this alleged Eurosceptical country, an agreement was reached rather smoothly on the same controversial issue.