Poland will join Britain in opting out from the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, Polish foreign minister Ana Fotyga announced after arriving for talks in Portugal on the EU’s new Reform Treaty.
“We want to join the British protocol, protocol 7,” Ms Fotyga told reporters on Friday (7 September), referring to a protocol in the proposed EU treaty which secures an exemption for the UK from the citizens rights charter.
Ms Fotyga made the announcement while strolling through the picturesque Portuguese town of Viana do Castelo where EU foreign ministers are holding a first political discussion on the detailed draft version of the new treaty prepared by the Portuguese EU presidency.
Warsaw has so far been ambiguous on whether it would like to be exempted from the EU rights charter, which is referred to in the reform treaty blueprint as legally binding.
Poland’s embattled conservative government dislikes the charter for its supposed liberalism on moral issues, but at the same time it has been under pressure from trade unions – who support the charter’s social rights catalogue – to sign up to the charter.
Now that the Poles have decided to go for the opt-out, they are set to confirm in the eyes of other delegations their reputation as prime member of the awkward squad.
A bitter European leaders summit on the treaty in June saw a head-to-head clash between Warsaw and Berlin centred around Poland’s voting weight in the EU – an issue which still has not been resolved, it emerged ahead of the Portugal meeting.
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