Prime Ministers Donald Tusk and Keir Starmer signed the partnership agreement on Wednesday.
The dispute centres on how much notice the presidential office received before the signing.
Marcin Przydacz, head of the presidential International Policy Bureau, said the government had not consulted the presidency ahead of the signing, and that the treaty's text only arrived a day before the ceremony.
The foreign ministry pushed back, saying it had "regularly informed the Presidential Chancellery about the state of negotiations and the planned content of the Treaty from the very beginning of the process".
President Nawrocki said he had only learned of the treaty through "public opinion" and insisted he needed to review its contents and receive analysis from the National Security Bureau (BBN) before he could consider ratifying it.
He said minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz had "made a fool of himself" by criticising the presidency's position.
Kosiniak-Kamysz, who is also deputy prime minister, responded that the president's objections were an attempt to distract from his earlier refusal to sign legislation implementing the EU's SAFE defence programme.
He said the president "did not stand in line with the military and the experts" on that occasion.
The minister said the constitutional process was being followed correctly – the treaty would go through Parliament before landing on the president's desk – and expressed confidence that Nawrocki would ultimately sign it.
"I cannot imagine the president not signing a treaty that increases Poland's defence capabilities," Kosiniak-Kamysz added.
Prime Minister Tusk said he found it hard to believe anyone would consider blocking the treaty, calling such a move "dangerous and unwise".
(ał)
Source: PAP