GERMANY/POLAND:German chancellor Angela Merkel chalked up another EU policy success in Poland at the weekend after President Lech Kaczynski promised his support for the constitutional treaty and the Berlin Declaration, to be signed next weekend in the German capital.
After months of sharp words between Berlin and Warsaw, officials on both sides spoke yesterday of "improved trust" after the overnight stay in the fishing town of Jurata on the northern Polish coast.
"I felt the common will to move on in the EU," said Dr Merkel. "As regards the constitutional treaty, we have agreed a close co-operation in the coming months."
German officials were concerned at possible Polish opposition to its plans to restart talks on an EU constitution with the Berlin Declaration.
Polish officials are anxious for documents to have a clear reference to God and do not want to sacrifice their current voting power in favour of less power and influence in the new constitutional treaty voting system.
However, shortly after Dr Merkel's departure, Mr Kaczynski said he was happy that the existing draft text of the constitutional treaty was the basis for future talks. Advisers to Mr Kaczynski seemed to confirm this shift in position saying Poland would be happy with "something similar" to the Nice voting system.
"Poland has certain reservations about the wording of the declaration of Berlin but in refusing to sign it we would have been the only country not to do so," said Mr Kaczynski.
"I don't see any reason why we should find ourselves in such a situation."
Mr Kaczynski told Polish television he had "made a step towards Germany", appearing to mark another milestone in his political transformation.
In recent years he has attracted attention for criticising the EU, and for a presidential campaign in 2005 where anti-German populism was a central component.
After 18 months of increasingly frosty relations between Berlin and Warsaw, Ms Merkel went to great lengths in a speech at Warsaw University on Friday to reach out to Poland.
In particular she addressed the issue of a private German organisation planning to sue Poland for compensation for property lost after the expulsion of Germans after the second World War from today's western Poland.
Dr Merkel told the audience that Germans wanted "dignified remembrance" of the expulsion in which up to 12 million Germans died, but that no one was interested in "revising history". She drew applause for reiterating that her government would not support any private property claims.
Yesterday a German government spokesman said the weekend visit had cemented a "basis of trust" between the two countries.
There were signs that a compromise might be possible on Poland's involvement in a new US missile defence system, a move that has drawn concern elsewhere in Europe. German officials said Poland appeared ready to continue talks about the missile shield in a Nato context, Berlin's favoured solution to the dispute.
German foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier warned, however, that "legitimate" American defence concerns "cannot be bought at the price of mistrust or even renewed insecurity".
He added: "Neither Nato nor the EU can let itself be divided."
