ABSTRACT
The EU constitution, agreed at the European Council in June 2004, was not exactly what the Polish government had envisaged at the beginning of the IGC in October 2003. Polish leaders were to defend Polish vital interests and to respond to domestic pressures represented by a slogan “Nice or death.”1 In December 2003, the IGC had failed partly because Poland and Spain vetoed the agreement. Both states were not willing to give up the voting weight granted to them by the Nice Treaty. In March 2004 socialist Prime Minister Zapatero came to power in Spain and announced Spain’s willingness to compromise. Having lost a coalition partner the Polish government was prepared for compromise. It wanted to play an important role in the EU, instead of being left on its own.
