German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Poland's president on Saturday in a last-ditch effort to convince Warsaw to drop its threat to veto talks on a new European Union treaty.
Poland's Eurosceptic ruling Kaczynski twins have threatened to block progress on the charter for reforming EU institutions at a June 21-22 summit if their demands for re-weighting the EU voting system are not taken into account.
Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said earlier she wanted EU leaders to agree at the summit on a schedule whereby all member countries would ratify the treaty before elections to the European parliament are held in 2009.
"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 podcast. "If we get to work in this spirit next week, then I hope we will reach an agreement." Merkel and Polish President Lech Kaczynski were not due to hold a news conference after meeting in Meseberg, near Berlin.
Warsaw believes the voting rules contained in the treaty give too much power to big countries - Germany in particular. Poland's demands are backed only by the Czech Republic. Merkel is due to meet Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek in Meseberg on Sunday.
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