Interview with Lech Kaczynski, president of Poland, in the Financial Times:
FT: How do you see the future of the European Union?
LK: There is a fundamental problem: Are we to give up the nation state in favour of some sort of a federation or quasi federation. In that I remain a sceptic. Can the governing of the union remain in the same form as now? No, that it is impossible in a Union of at least 27 countries. I think it should remain a union of states because I think the nation state has still not ended its mission.
FT: Is a new constitution needed?
LK: A new fundamental pact is needed. For me, it doesn’t matter what it is called, whether it is called a constitution or not.
FT: Does Poland have ideas for this new treaty?
LK: By the end of the first quarter of next year will present our ideas. It will certainly be a more compact proposal than the current constitutional treaty.
LK: An army? It’s more like a corpus. At the moment in Europe we have the situation where the EU needs about 8,000 troops in Lebanon and there is a problem where to find them. Forces are needed which would not replace the armies of individual states, but which could be gathered without a problem when not just 8,000 but as many as 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers are needed. Obviously if there was some sort of an external threat the corpus would have to help whoever was in danger. It should be very clear that it would be within the framework of NATO.