An accusation by Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski that German atrocities committed during World War II were to blame for the current level of the Polish population provoked outrage at the European Union summit that began in Brussels Thursday, according to dpa. Kaczynski charged that Poland's population would be 66 million, against the actual 38 million, but for the devastation and death caused by the invasion by Germany under Adolf Hitler in September 1939. He made the attack on Germany in support of Polish demands for its voting weight in the European Council of Ministers to be increased vis-a-vis that of Germany. "The Germans caused us unimaginable damage, subjected us repeatedly to horrible suffering, committed unimaginable crimes against Poles," Kaczynski, whose twin brother President Lech Kaczynski is attending the summit, said in a Polish radio interview. "Today the Poles love the Germans, and the Germans do not love the Poles," he added. "We are merely demanding what was taken from us." Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected the attack. "The idea that today's decisions on voting rights should be based on World War II is absurd," Rasmussen said. Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said Europe could not continue "living in the past." Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker accused the Polish leaders of being "obsessed" with Germany. European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering said Kaczynski's comments on the Polish war dead were "painful and objectionable." Poettering, a German, said the remarks were "inappropriate in a debate about the capacity of the EU to act." British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman declined to pass judgement. "People have their sensitivities and it is generally not a good idea to get involved in a commentary on them," he said. Britain entered the war in response to the German invasion of Poland.
