Politicians from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS), as well as the opposition Civic Platform (PO) claim authorship of the so-called square root vote count system in the UE. Alas, none of the parties has anything to do with the invention of the mathematical formula, writes daily "Życie Warszawy".

Professors Karol Życzkowski (physicist) and Wojciech Słomczyński (mathematician) from Jagiellonian University have been writing about the so-called square-root method of counting votes since 2004. In their opinion, it is the fairest known method of counting votes in the UE, but the idea itself isn’t so new.

“As early as in 1946, the English mathematician Lionel Penrose wrote about a similar method in reference to the United Nations”, said Wojciech Słomczyński from the Institute of Applied Mathematics of Jagiellonian University.

The Polish academics have developed their own system using Penrose’s calculations, and called it the “Jagiellonian Compromise”. They believe their method of counting votes ensures that EU citizens have and equal influence on the decision making process in the UE.

“We met socially one day and, to my surprise, it turned out that we had common interests, so we decided to unite our forces”, Słomczyński reminisces about the beginning of his co-operation with Życzkowski.

“In January 2004, we published an analysis in “Rzeczpospolita”, presenting an objective square root system and we indicated that it was much more favourable for Poland than the double majority system proposed by the EU constitution. Then we published more articles in Poland and abroad, but they went unnoticed by politicians”, said professor Życzkowski.

Słomczyński adds that the square root is in fact a European project: “About 200 academic papers have been written about the subject in the past ten years. The system is supported by scientists from such countries as Germany, Finland and Sweden.”

In the meantime, politicians from PO and PiS are disputing with one another which party has invented the system. (mj)