Sound The Trumpet : Klaus Admits Bid to Block Lisbon will Probably Fail

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“Klaus Admits Bid to Block Lisbon will Probably Fail”
by Irish Times.com
October 20th, 2009

CZECH PRESIDENT Vaclav Klaus has admitted for the first time that his bid to block the Lisbon Treaty is almost certainly doomed, and suggested that he might sign it if given an “Irish-style” guarantee from EU leaders on certain issues.

Mr Klaus believes the treaty will transfer too much power from national governments to Brussels, and has refused to sign it despite it receiving the approval of the Czech parliament.

He says he will not ratify the treaty, which has been cleared by all the EU’s other 26 member states, until the Czech constitutional court rules on a last-ditch complaint against it by his Eurosceptic allies, and until he is given special assurances over its charter of fundamental rights.

Mr Klaus fears the charter will expose Prague to compensation demands for property that was confiscated from three million Germans who were expelled from Czechoslovakia after the second World War. Surveys suggest that most Czechs share his worries.

The Czech government is in talks with Mr Klaus and the EU to find a solution which would not require reratification of the document by all EU members.

The Prague government and Brussels hope to have that solution approved by the European Council at an October 29th to 30th summit.

“I do not consider the Lisbon Treaty to be a good thing for Europe, for the freedom of Europe, or for the Czech Republic,” Mr Klaus told a Czech newspaper.

“However, the train has already travelled so fast and so far that I guess it will not be possible to stop it or turn it around, however much we would wish to.”

Mr Klaus also said he might be satisfied with the kind of “political declaration” that EU leaders gave to Ireland over its fears about the treaty’s impact on its neutrality, taxation and abortion laws, rather than demanding the more complex and time-consuming legal exemption that was given to Poland and Britain on certain matters.

“I never said that is necessary that my ‘footnote’ would have to be ratified by all member states, along with the whole Lisbon Treaty again,” he said. “I have never said that guarantees similar to those that the European Council gave to the Irish . . . would not be sufficient for me.”

Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico said yesterday he might seek the same assurances to protect his country from German property claims.

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