Poland sinks Portuguese plans for EU-wide death penalty day (Roundup)

Sep 18, 2007, 16:20 GMT

Brussels - Poland has all but sank plans by the Portuguese presidency of the EU to hold a European Day against the death penalty next month, officials in Brussels acknowledged Tuesday.

'Poland confirmed its previous position and made it impossible to agree on holding this European day. We will find other ways of demonstrating Europe's opposition to the death penalty,' said Alberto Costa, Portugal's justice minister, after a meeting of interior and justice ministers in Brussels.

Portugal was the first European country to abolish the death penalty in 1876, and is keen for the EU to endorse its anti-capital punishment stance with a European day, to be celebrated on October 10.

Poland, like all other EU member states, has also abolished the death penalty. But its staunchly Catholic conservative government insists on transforming October 10 into a wider pro-life event.

'If we have to discuss the death penalty, we should also discuss abortion and euthanasia,' said Andrzej Duda, Poland's secretary of state.

EU Commissioner Franco Frattini said ministers meeting in Brussels had held a 'highly political discussion, at the end of which no agreement could be reached on establishing a European day.'

Spanish Justice Minister Mariano Sanchez Bermejo said Poland was isolated on this issue and that its position was largely intended for domestic consumption.

The government of the Kaczynski twins is currently seeking re-election in a closely-fought general election scheduled for October 21.

'Twenty-six countries in the EU want to celebrate a symbolic day against the death penalty but only one, Poland, is against,' Sanchez Bermejo said.

'It is very difficult to understand why Poland is putting a veto on this. We hope it is only a provisional (veto),' the minister added.

In disagreeing with Poland's isolated stance, British Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw said such issues tended to be treated as matters of conscience rather than party politics in Britain.

Portuguese officials said they had not given up hope of celebrating the European day, but conceded that Poland was unlikely to change its stance over the coming weeks.