German chancellor meets Polish president over EU constitution

By Xinhua

Berlin : German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Saturday in her last-ditch effort to seek a compromise on the controversial EU constitution.


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    No news conference is expected after a four-hour meeting in Meseberg, near Berlin.

    German news agency dpa quoted sources as saying that the talks remained friendly and are likely to continue in the next few days.

    "We will now put forward a proposal for such a schedule. The readiness of all to compromise will be necessary for it to be adopted," Merkel said in her weekly video.

    "If we get to work in this spirit next week, then I hope we will reach an agreement."

    Merkel is expected to present a "roadmap" to salvage the virtually dead EU constitution treaty in a EU summit next week and a solution is not yet in sight largely due to opposition from Poland.

    Instead of the voting rule of "double majority," Poland prefers a formula based on the square root of each country's population, which will give countries like Poland more power in decision-making,

    The original treaty draft said law bills can be adopted when agreed by a "double majority" of at least 55 percent of the national governments representing at least 65 percent of the EU's population.

    French President Nicolas Sarkozy met his Polish counterpart in Warsaw on Thursday and the Polish president signaled that Poland could drop its threat to veto the constitution draft treaty.

    The treaty, which requires unanimous ratification by all EU members, was rejected by France and the Netherlands in separate referendums in 2005. 

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