Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski warned Wednesday that Warsaw could veto a proposed new EU constitution if Poland's voting powers were downgraded.
Referring to the draft constitution to be debated by EU leaders at a Brussels summit this weekend, Kwasniewski told BBC television: "If the position is what is in the treaty, without the chance for compromise, we cannot say yes.
"At the end of the day we are right," said Kwasniewski, adding: "We are right to fight for good equilibrium in the European Union."
The president was speaking ahead of a crucial EU summit starting today, where leaders will aim to finalize the 15-nation bloc's first constitution as it prepares for its biggest enlargement yet, with 10 more countries including Poland due to join on May 1.
Warsaw, along with Madrid, is set to insist on hanging on to voting rights it gained in the EU's 2000 Nice Treaty.
That treaty gave Spain and Poland 27 votes, compared to 29 for Germany, whose population is bigger than that of the two countries combined.
Poland and Spain are fighting off efforts in the EU draft constitution to correct the imbalance, while France and Germany insist on keeping the draft in its current form.
Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said earlier Wednesday that the EU summit could fail but it would not be fair to blame Warsaw.
"We cannot, alas, rule out a fiasco ... because the extremely polarized positions are expressed in a radical way," Cimoszewicz said.
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