Czechs offer Poland climbdown ladder in EU talks

By Paul Taylor

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The Czech Republic offered Poland an opportunity to climb down in talks on a new European Union treaty on Monday but it is unclear whether Warsaw is interested in a face-saving compromise at a summit this week.

Poland is demanding a change to the reformed voting system agreed in 2004 which it says would give big states, especially Germany, too much power mainly at Warsaw's expense.

A Polish veto would block progress on a treaty for reforming creaking institutions designed half a century ago for a community one-quarter the size of today's enlarged 27-nation EU.

Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga said Warsaw had received signals of a possible compromise but told reporters: "I want to say explicitly that for Poland to accept the voting system in the European constitution is not a compromise."

Diplomats said Germany could offer Poland a delay in introducing the voting system as a last-minute gambit to clinch a deal, but there was no sign Warsaw would accept.

Only the Czechs have lent Poland half-hearted support, while the other 25 member states insist the voting reform must stay in the mandate for a new treaty, due to be approved by EU leaders at a Brussels summit on Thursday and Friday.

At an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg, Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said Prague wanted to help find a compromise between Poland and Germany, which holds the EU presidency.

"As a country in Central Europe, we see Poland as a very important country. We definitely don't want to see Poland isolated," Vondra said.