October 23, 2009

Klaus strikes positive note on EU treaty deal

 

Mr Klaus´ surprise request - viewed with some exasperation in other EU capitals - concerned obtaining an opt-out from a rights charter contained in the treaty. The president argued the charter would expose the Czech Republic to property claims by ethnic Germans expelled from the country after World War II.

It came on top of his long-standing refusal to sign off the Lisbon Treaty, an act that would complete ratification of the document in the Czech Republic and allow the new institutional rules to come into force across the 27 nation European Union.

On Friday (23 October), just a week before the EU leaders will gather in Brussels for a summit they are hoping will concentrate on the immediate institutional implications of putting the treaty into force, Mr Klaus said he was satisfied with a proposal put forward by the Swedish EU presidency, in charge of negotiations.

"The president ...received the Swedish presidency´s proposal which is a response to his request related to the Lisbon Treaty ratification in the Czech Republic," Mr Klaus´s office said in a statement. "This proposal corresponds to what the president has envisioned and it is possible to work with it further."

For its part, Stockholm said it "welcomed" the latest comments from Prague.

"The presidency will continue to work with this in view of next week´s European Council," said Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

In order for ratification to proceed, the treaty must also be approved by the Czech constitutional court which is looking at its compatibility with national law. It is due to have a hearing on the challenge on Tuesday (27 October) with a ruling expected shortly afterwards.

The judges are expected to come out in favour of the treaty having done so in a similar but narrower challenge last year, a move that would free the way for signature by Mr Klaus.

The Czech president, a strong eurosceptic who loathes the Lisbon Treaty, has worried national capitals because of his unpredictability. The charter opt-out request, made earlier this month, took other member states by surprise.

However, Mr Klaus appears to have finally decided that the Lisbon Treaty battle is lost, recently telling Czech Daily Lidovy Noviny that:

"The train carrying the treaty is going so fast and it´s so far that it can´t be stopped or returned ...No matter how much some of us would want that."

Source: EUObserver

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