Polish president hits out at 'artificial' European Union

The European Union is an "artificial creation" which ploughs on aimlessly and has no solid budgetary foundations, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said in a German newspaper interview published on Thursday.

"My opinion of the EU is the following: A superstate which polarizes countries' areas of competence but which at the same time is rather helpless because it only has a symbolic budget. That is an artificial creation," Kaczynski told Die Welt.

The president was completing a two-day visit to Germany on Thursday.

Poland is widely considered the most powerful of the newer members of the EU, which enlarged to 25 states in 2004 after allowing eastern European nations into its ranks.

But Kaczynski, who was elected last year, said it was a myth to think that all Europeans had a shared outlook.

"There is no European public opinion, rather national public opinions," he said.

As for the EU constitution, which was designed to provide the framework for the enlarged bloc, Kaczynski said it was "very open to interpretation".

The constitution was rejected by Dutch and French voters in referendums last year.