POLAND:A junior partner in Poland's ruling coalition has declared war on the new EU treaty, saying it violates Polish values and interests.
The move from the extreme right League of Polish Families (LPR) comes as prosecutors examined allegations that party officials misappropriated 1.4 million zloty (€372,000) in public money.
"We will start a campaign against the treaty because, thanks to Germany, it includes amendments which are putting EU interests ahead of Poland's interests," said LPR leader Roman Giertych, deputy prime minister and education minister.
He called on the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party of the Kaczynski twins to join his rejection of the treaty.
Two weeks ago, Poland and 26 other EU member states agreed the details of a revised treaty to be agreed at an intergovernmental conference (IGC) later this month.
Since then, Polish officials have questioned details of the deal reached on future voting rights, but Mr Giertych's remark is the first outright rejection.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday the commission could not agree to requests to reopen discussion on issues that had already been agreed at the EU summit.
He said it would be a "real error" to revisit the hard-fought deal achieved on the voting system, which Warsaw is now disputing.
"We cannot allow matters to be reopened on which agreement has already been reached. I don't believe anyone is really considering putting in jeopardy what was agreed," said Mr Barroso, who was attending a joint meeting of the commission and the Portuguese cabinet in Porto.
The meeting marked the start of Portugal's assumption of the six-month presidency of the EU, which will run until January.
Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates described the voting issue raised by the Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski as a "red herring" and a "non-problem".
Mr Socrates also said that he would not decide on whether to hold a referendum in Portugal on the proposed EU "reform treaty" until the final text of a treaty is agreed at an upcoming IGC due to start on July 23rd.
"I don't know how you could hold a referendum on something that is not agreed yet," he said. "Only a child would think the transition of the mandate to a treaty would be done in a non-political manner."
The outburst from Mr Giertych comes as his party is flailing in opinion polls with just 2 per cent support, well below the 5 per cent parliamentary cut-off.
In response, LPR politicians have launched political campaigns on domestic - and now EU - policy to win back voters lost to the national conservative PiS.
Over the weekend, the strongly pro-life Mr Giertych called for school biology lessons on how abortions are carried out.
Last week, a leading Polish newspaper alleged that the party ran an organised network to misappropriate public money. Public prosecutors are now examining the party's finances.
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said that the government had a "problem" if the allegations were proven.