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Multilateral Foreign Policy > Published by Will Straw, October 30th 2009 at 5:04 pm

Poland cannot veto Miliband

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David-MilibandGuido Fawkes has an 12-word post:

“Polish governing party says it will veto Miliband EU foreign minister role.”

Meanwhile Iain Dale claims that the “Miliband Campaign is Already Over” after the Chairman of the Polish Law and Justice Party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said:

“We respect David Miliband as Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. But before we could consider him for the role of EU High Representative, we must politely ask him to apologise for the remarks he has made about our party and our leading MEP Michal Kaminski.”

But Left Foot Forward understands that votes for both jobs will be taken by qualified majority. Charles Grant, respected Director of the Center for European Reform, told Left Foot Forward:

“In theory decisions on both jobs taken will be taken by qualified majority; in practice there will be a lot of effort to reach a consensus and the big countries would be able to veto someone they do not like. So the UK would block  Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister, if his campaign for the presidency looked like succeeding.

“As for the reports that Poland would block David Miliband from becoming High Representative, it is not clear whether Poland really counts as a ’big country’, ie one that can veto. Would Poland really try to block him? That would depend on the balance of power between the president, who is doubtless furious with Miliband’s comments about his Law and Justice Party, and the PM, whose own party is a bitter opponent of Law and Justice.

“I know that the French government and several others are big fans of Miliband. He is a popular figure in the Council of Ministers and is speech to the IISS on Monday was very well received in other capitals. If enough governments want Miliband I am not sure Poland would stand in the way (he is, after all, Polish!).

NB: This quote is an expanded version of the briefer comments that appeared here earlier.

  • Silent Hunter

    Oh great! . . . . Yeah!; Let’s have BananaBoy as head of the EU!

    When is the General Election due?

  • Sunder Katwala

    The other mistake in the 12-word Guido Fawkes post was to call them the governing party.

    Their own statement says: “Law and Justice is a major party in Poland, and our country’s President is from our party”.

    They have been in opposition since the 2007 elections.

  • Simon

    wot goes around comes around as they say.

  • http://twitter.com/shamikdas/status/5292502497 Shamik Das

    RT @leftfootfwd: Poland cannot veto Miliband Mr @guidofawkes:- http://bit.ly/43KVVW

  • http://www.order-order.co Guido Fawkes

    The head of state is a member Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, I’d say that makes them a governing party. Idiotzcy.

    Ask your old man about EU realpolitik. Miliband isn’t going to be the EU high representative. End of story.

  • Billy the Kid

    Let’s hope you’re right Guido – the sooner this bunch of liars and thieves are out of office the better.

  • http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2009/10/31/tories-caught-out-on-miliband-veto/ Liberal Conspiracy » Tories caught out on Miliband veto

    [...] Charles Grant from Center for European Reform, told Left Foot Forward: In theory decisions on both jobs taken will be taken by qualified majority; in practice there will [...]

  • Anon E Mouse

    Don’t worry about Poland not being able to veto Miliband.

    The British people next year will veto the whole bunch of warmongering dishonest creeps and hopefully both the Milibands will be in the mercy killing.

    Roll on the election.