RPT-Czech PM says will not veto EU deal over voting

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PRAGUE, June 20 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic will not veto an agreement on institutional reforms at an EU summit this week if Poland's demand to change the bloc's proposed voting system is rejected, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said on Wednesday.

Topolanek said, however, he had a mandate to veto an agreement if individual member states were granted exclusive and permanent opt-outs of EU policies or if there was a return to "quasi-state" patterns in the treaty.

The Czech Republic is the only EU member backing the Polish drive to change the voting weights of individual countries from a system proposed in the European constitution, a failed treaty revamping the EU institutions.

"The Polish voting proposal is better for countries like the Czech Republic than the one proposed in the European Constitution which reduced our weight by a third," Topolanek said in a statement.

"Supporting the Polish proposal, however, is not our national priority. The coalition government did not give me the mandate to veto an agreement in case the Polish proposal is not accepted."

Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski signalled in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that Poland might climb down on its demands if given some concessions.

He also said Poland would be interested in an opt-out from a Charter of Fundamental Rights, which would be made legally binding in the reform treaty.

The Czechs said nobody should be given the right to have an exclusive and permanent opt-out from EU policies.

"We hold the opinion that the option of getting permanent opt-outs should be available for all or for no one," he said.

The Czech government will be trying to push through the possibility of returning some EU powers to the national level, an option dubbed "two-way flexibility".

Topolanek said he would also support a Dutch proposal to give national parliaments greater power in creating European legislation.

The Czechs, along with Poland and the Netherlands, are refusing to have anything in the new treaty that may suggest the EU is becoming a state, such as an EU anthem or flag, or the word "constitution".