Days before EU's foreign ministers kick off detailed talks on the bloc's new treaty, Poland has signalled it will not insist on further debates and concessions on the sensitive issue of the union's voting rules.
Polish top officials have hinted they do not want Warsaw to appear as the only trouble-maker when the EU convenes the intergovernmental conference on the new treaty, on Monday (23 July), according to several Polish papers.
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Earlier this month, Poland sparked concerns that it would not stick to a voting compromise agreed to by EU leaders at an acrimonious summit in June.
In post-summit comments, Warsaw highlighted a specific provision which allows countries to delay an EU decision if they fall just short of the required number of member states to block it.
Polish authorities argued they had been given a "gentleman's agreement" that there would be a mechanism to delay the decision for up to two years - something subsequently denied by EU officials and the Portuguese presidency of the Union.
But Andrzej Sados, minister in the Polish prime minister's cabinet, told Rzeczpospolita daily, that Warsaw is not going to insist on the disputed provision.
"Our priority is not to block decisions - we're interested in easier decision-making because we want the Union to function properly," he said.
He added that the delay mechanism would in any case only apply for decisions in agriculture and trade areas where Warsaw does not see itself being in danger of losing out in issues of its national interest.
The proposed EU treaty continues to provide political ammunition in Poland, however.
Earlier this week, two minor parties in the government led by Jaroslav Kaczynski - Samoobrona and the League of Polish families - merged together into a new movement - and hinted they would press for a rejection of the new EU treaty altogether.
But Mr Kaczynski played down their comments, suggesting "This issue is being analysed individually by each party, but I do not currently see any threat to ratification."
"There are threats to ratification in several other countries, but it's not the case in Poland," he added, according to PAP agency.
Lisbon is to give its name to the latest EU treaty
European Union foreign ministers today opened an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) beginning work on on a new treaty for the 27-member bloc. Portugal, the presiding country of the Union during the negotiations, presented its first draft of the 145 page document (with an extra 132 pages of protocols) to foreign ministers in a short ceremony opening the conference.

A mandate for the new Reform Treaty was agreed last month after drawn out European Council negotiations in Brussels. Under the German Presidency of the Union, leaders agreed to drop the proposed Constitution and its state-like elements, yet retain many of its institutional reforms: described by Angela Merkel (German Chancellor and then-Council President) in the terms ''“The fundamentals of the Constitution have been maintained in large part … We have renounced everything that makes people think of a state, like the flag and the national anthem.”'' This mandate is now going to be taken by the IGC, composed of national and European government officials, and converted into a legal text.

Negotiations are expected to go smoothly. Poland had originally intended to kick up a storm over the chosen voting system, as it stood to lose from the proposed QMV system and favoured keeping the old system or using an alternative. The negotiations concluded that the implementation of the new system would be delayed until 2014. Poland also claimed it had secured a Gentlemen's agreement that it could veto decisions for a further two years, but this was denied by other members. Isolated, Poland relented and agreed to back official agreement, with a minister stating: "Our priority is not to block decisions - we're interested in easier decision-making because we want the Union to function properly." The Polish Prime Minister stated that despite some opposition in Poland, there is no threat to governments' ability to ratify the document.

The IGC should conclude in Lisbon during October of this year and would shortly after be signed in the city; therefore, the city will give its name to the treaty. This will allow ratification throughout 2008 so it can come into force before the 2009 European elections. Most national ratification is expected to take place without referenda, to avoid a repeat of the "no" votes that halted the European Constitution.