Poland could hold a referendum on whether to ratify the EU Lisbon Treaty if the conservative opposition Law and Justice Party (PiS) blocked the ratification by parliament, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday.
But he added that the government will do all it can in parliament for the EU Lisbon Treaty to be ratified.
Tusk criticized Poland's President Lech Kaczynski for his Monday's TV address, saying that the president was "joining an anti-European row." In a televised address on Monday night, President Kaczynski said: "Not everything in the EU is good for Poland."
"The anti-European political row provoked by PiS is no good for Poland's strong position in the EU and the world. I regret to say that the president has joined this row with his address," Polish news agency PAP quoted Tusk as saying.
"We will do everything in our power in parliament for the Lisbon Treaty, which offers real chances to strengthen Poland's position in the EU, to be ratified," he declared.
A Polish plebiscite on the treaty, signed last year aiming to streamline EU decision making, could embolden calls for such votes across the bloc, slowing the charter's approval and risk failure to be unanimously approved by all 27 members. Ireland is the only member state due to hold a public vote on the treaty.
The treaty would need a two-thirds majority to go through both houses of the Polish parliament, but ex-Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's PiS has said the existing ratification bill does not guarantee Poland's exemption from the treaty's Charter of Fundamental Rights.
It fears the charter could allow homosexual marriage in Poland and pave the way for Germans to sue Poles for property lost after World War II.
"Threatening Poles that the EU poses a danger on the part of homosexuals and Germans is foolish, indecent, contrary to our elementary interests and experiences and very harmful to Poland as regards its image," Tusk said.
Recent surveys show a vast majority of Poles are in favor of the treaty but for a referendum to be valid it must clear a 50 percent turnout hurdle, which analysts say may be difficult to achieve.
Source:Xinhua
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