‘EU reform. The two-pronged Polish strategy’. On 13 June 2007, German cartoonist Josef Gottscheber illustrates Poland’s blockage of the process of institutional reform in the European Union. The Kaczynski brothers, one of whom is President of the Republic of Poland and the other Prime Minister, are categorically refusing any system of qualified majority voting, which they believe would favour Germany. One week before the Brussels European Council of 21 and 22 June, the Polish authorities are threatening to wield their veto, if necessary, at the opening of an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) aimed at finalising a ‘simplified treaty’. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, depicted as a station master, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy do not hide their irritation at the obstruction strategy employed by the Kaczynski brothers.