Polish president links EU treaty approval to Irish

By Gareth Jones

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland will not ratify the European Union's reform treaty unless Ireland manages to overcome its own voters' opposition and also approves the charter, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said on Wednesday.

Kaczynski, a Eurosceptic, said he could not accept attempts by other EU states to bully Ireland into approving the treaty, rejected by its voters in a June referendum.

"If Ireland ratifies the treaty Poland will do so too," he told Polish public television in an interview.

"Poland will not act as a brake (on the EU) because if Ireland ratifies the treaty Poland will ratify it too. But we have to create a situation in which the Irish people will do this of their own free will, not under duress," Kaczynski said.

Pressed on when he might sign the treaty, Kaczynski said: "When it will no longer be a problem and it will no longer be a problem when we know that all (EU) countries ratify the treaty."

Kaczynski shocked the EU on Tuesday when he said in a newspaper interview that signing the treaty now was "pointless".

The Lisbon Treaty aims to streamline the EU's creaking institutions following the bloc's expansion into central and eastern Europe from 2004.

All 27 EU member states must approve the charter before it can take effect. Only Ireland was required by its constitution to hold a referendum on the treaty.

Poland's parliament ratified the treaty in April but it cannot come into force without the president's signature.

NO PRESSURE

"The Irish may change their minds without any external pressure, without arrogance from other parties. Today we should wait, we should speak with various countries including Ireland," Kaczynski said in his interview.

Kaczynski helped negotiate the treaty with his twin brother Jaroslaw, who served as Polish prime minister until he lost a parliamentary election last autumn to the strongly pro-EU Civic Platform of Donald Tusk.

Prime Minister Tusk urged the president on Tuesday to sign the treaty to avoid isolating Poland inside the EU.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country assumed the EU's six-month rotating presidency on Tuesday, said he believed Kaczynski would ultimately honour a pledge to ratify the treaty.

Kaczynski said the rights of small countries such as Ireland had to be fully respected within the EU.