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WARSAW (Reuters) - The presidents of Poland and the Czech Republic spoke out on Thursday against what they saw as excessively close integration of the European Union, confirming their scepticism towards the EU constitution.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Poland's Lech Kaczynski met in Warsaw to discuss the EU constitution and reform of its institutions -- something that was rejected in 2005 by French and Dutch voters.
"We have the impression that something has to be done, that the Constitution Charter in its present form is not to be used, it is not to be accepted," Klaus told a news conference.
He was echoed by his Polish counterpart.
"We do not see a crisis in the European Union right now ... There are difficulties of course ... Are reforms needed? They are needed, as the president (Klaus) said, but we do not see the need for a revolution," Kaczynski said.
Germany is trying to revive the discussion and gather proposals for a new document during its current six-month EU presidency.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has put the issue at the top of her European agenda, will meet Klaus later this week.
Poland and the Czech Republic are among nine countries that have not ratified the treaty, which aimed to streamline the workings of the bloc, which now has 27 members.
The 18 nations that have ratified the constitution meet on Friday in Madrid, where they will declare it cannot be buried because of the French and Dutch votes, Luxembourg's European Affairs Minister Nicolas Schmit said on Thursday.
Klaus said this week he was in favour of a document that would halt integration of the bloc by "stealth", a project he said was being driven by officials behind the backs of EU citizens.
Andrzej Krawczyk, the Polish president's foreign policy adviser, told Reuters that Poland would probably present its proposals next month and that Kaczynski would decide whether to hold a referendum on the constitution when there was "some progress" in talks within the bloc.
According to opinion polls, more than 60 percent of Poles are in favour of an EU charter.