Poland misses the "square root" of the problem

By bringing up the issue of how voting should be conducted in the Council of Ministers once again, Poland has done serious damage to their already strained credibility within the EU. Poland's latest proposed is for member states' votes in the Council to be calculated using the square root of a state's population instead of the population itself. This would give Poland much greater influence in Council decisions. Under the rules proposed by the Constitution for Europe, Germany would have 82 votes versus Poland's 38. Under the square root proposal, Germany would have nine votes and Poland six.

While Poland is free to suggest changes to the voting rules, it is the diplomatic temper tantrum that introduced it that hurts Poland's credibility. A senior Polish offical, Ewa Osniecka-Tamecka, told the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza:

"If other countries do not want to discuss our proposal, we will take the last resort," Ms Osniecka-Tamecka said, on the possibility of a Polish veto on constitution talks. The new voting plan would be a "Polish historical rebate" for the fact that "for 50 years Poland for no fault of its own was outside EU integration," Mr Cichocki added.

It is statements like this that are quickly earning Poland a reputation in Europe as being uncooperative. Such a reputation is far more damaging to Poland's interests than any voting system. The EU works on consensus and informal negotiations. Being seen as obstructionist and uncooperative will ultimately result in Poland being ignored most of the time. Especially when the decision can be made using a majority vote.