UPDATE 1-Poles, Czechs, Slovaks eye swift EU treaty approval

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By Jan Lopatka

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic, Poland will be among the first European Union nations to ratify the bloc's new reform treaty, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Monday.

His Czech and Slovak counterparts joined Tusk in declaring plans to secure swift approval in their parliaments.

The treaty, backed by EU leaders in October and due to be signed in Lisbon on Dec. 13, replaces a planned European constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

"Poland will belong among the first countries that will ratify this treaty," Tusk said after meeting Czech, Hungarian, Slovak and Slovenian prime ministers at a summit in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava.

The centre-right prime minister, who came to power after an election in October, added Poland would ratify the treaty in the first half of 2008, when Slovenia holds the six-month rotating EU presidency.

Tusk is striving to bring Polish foreign policy back into the European mainstream after replacing the conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski who frequently clashed with EU heavyweights like Germany.

Tusk has however said he would have to abandon plans to sign up to the European Union's charter of fundamental rights with other EU nations after the opposition threatened to block ratification of the new treaty.

The previous government negotiated an opt-out from the charter, attached to the treaty, arguing that it could limit Warsaw's ability to maintain a traditional Roman Catholic family policy.

Tusk's centre-right coalition lacks a two-thirds majority to ratify the EU treaty, which will streamline decision-making in the bloc, meaning it will need opposition support.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico saw little to prevent swift approval.

"Ratification should go through very fast and without problems, because it will take place in parliament where European ideas have strong support," said Fico.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said the government would submit the treaty to parliament at the first session next year, due in late January.

But in the Czech Republic, Topolanek's right-wing Civic Democrats have agreed to ask the Constitutional Court to look at some aspects of the treaty, so Topolanek said he could not guarantee the ratification to go through as quickly as in the other central European new EU member states. (Additional reporting by Marek Petrus; Editing by Keith Weir)

Keywords: POLAND TREATY/

[Reuters/Finance.cz]