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Sat, Feb 11 2012
Czech cabinet meets to resolve Lisbon Treaty impasse
The Czech Cabinet is due to meet in emergency session on October 12 to consider how to persuade their president, Vaclav Klaus, to sign the Lisbon Treaty.
Now that Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski, has signed the treaty, the Czech Republic is the only nation out of the EU's 27 members still to sign.
With Klaus demanding a last-minute amendment as the price of his signature, the government could face a potentially unprecedented constitutional crisis.
The result of this impasse could be that either president Klaus is forced out of office or that a constitutional amendment overturns the president's powers.
Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, has stated that Czech agreement was eagerly awaited. "We do not need more delays," he said. France and Germany, the main drivers behind the treaty, are said to be particularly impatient to see its ratification.
Klaus said that he wants an opt-out from the charter of fundamental rights, a key part of the treaty, because he fears that it could give Germans expelled from the Sudetenland after World War 2 the right to take property claims to the European Court of Justice.
"I have always considered this treaty a step in the wrong direction," Klaus has said.
Some commentators see Klaus' actions as a delaying tactic while he waits for a conservative government to come to power in the UK and fulfil its longstanding pledge to carry out a referendum on the treaty if it remains unratified somewhere in the EU. It is also seen as a deliberately "wrecking" action because any revisions to the treaty would need the agreement of all other EU members.
Now that Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski, has signed the treaty, the Czech Republic is the only nation out of the EU's 27 members still to sign.
With Klaus demanding a last-minute amendment as the price of his signature, the government could face a potentially unprecedented constitutional crisis.
The result of this impasse could be that either president Klaus is forced out of office or that a constitutional amendment overturns the president's powers.
Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, has stated that Czech agreement was eagerly awaited. "We do not need more delays," he said. France and Germany, the main drivers behind the treaty, are said to be particularly impatient to see its ratification.
Klaus said that he wants an opt-out from the charter of fundamental rights, a key part of the treaty, because he fears that it could give Germans expelled from the Sudetenland after World War 2 the right to take property claims to the European Court of Justice.
"I have always considered this treaty a step in the wrong direction," Klaus has said.
Some commentators see Klaus' actions as a delaying tactic while he waits for a conservative government to come to power in the UK and fulfil its longstanding pledge to carry out a referendum on the treaty if it remains unratified somewhere in the EU. It is also seen as a deliberately "wrecking" action because any revisions to the treaty would need the agreement of all other EU members.
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EU Presidency optimistic that Klaus will sign Lisbon Treaty
Sweden, current holder of the European Union presidency, is working with Czech authorities on an opt-out on some provisions of the Lisbon Treaty to open the way for president Vaclav Klaus to sign it.
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‘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,’ Klaus says in an interview in Prague, adding he will not wait for the UK elections.
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I seem to recall, "Working Man In England", that the British government let down the Czechs rather badly in 1938, when a man called Neville Chamberlain masquerading as British Prime Minister gave up the Czech border territories (known as the Sudetenland) to a man called Adolf Hitler masquerading as German Chancellor, in what became known as the "Munich Agreement".
Doubtless from the Czech viewpoint now, "Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold".....
Dear Friend
Liberty requires freedom - the EU brings the chains of dictatorship. If you doubt this, investigate for yourself the content of the Lisbon Treaty. Do this for yourself, challenge yourself to find out what the Treaty actually means, and then by all means, if you agree, wholeheartedly with its content, then fully support it. However, if you find its content will reduce your liberty, your freedom, your right to life, then stand against it.
This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained реклама & спам
I meant "expected". ;-)
Just like I accepted, the Czech government has adopted Klaus's demands as their own, thinking that it is the most feasible way to continue in the process. They will table them in the EU soon.
http://euobserver.com/9/28812
The government wants to believe that Klaus won't have further demands if they win the concessions - which, so far, they have not been promised.
At any rate, there is surely no constitutional crisis in Czechia stemming from this question.
It is with the treaty of Lisbon, that the EU states finally get an explicit right to depart from the EU.
The supposed "eurosceptics" that have been posting here, supposedly both hate the EU -- but they oppose this modification that will finally, FINALLY allow the United Kingdom (or the Czech Republic or any other nation) to leave it.
By stalling the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, the President of the Czech Republic is merely prolonging the enslavement of his nation to the *previous* treaties -- those treaties that allowed no [...]
Read the full comment withdrawal from the European Union at all.
So it all depends on this question: Do you want a Lisbon Treaty EU with every nation having the right to withdraw from it, or do you want the current EU with no nation having the right to leave it?
do you want to be part of a Europe that has clout, of be the little nations that China and India will dictate to? With the world power changing, Europeans, including the english must ensure a future for their generations to come. the lisbon treaty does not override national soverignity, so please read through it first before judging
I would like to remind my Czech friends of the other European political movements that thought it was in mankinds interest to "unify" Europe without a democratic mandate:
Fascism
Communism
Socialism
national Socialism
The EU will prove to be a bigger threat to peace than all of the above put together.
I beg the Czech people & President to resist this EU tyranny - all is lost without you.
As an Englishman [...]
Read the full comment I will say this:
No Democracy? No Ballot Box? - NO PEACE.
Fight the power - the Franco / German EU Empire must fall!
We are relying on your President to delay until June 2010. Brave, Proud and Handsome People of the Czech Republic, you came to our aid in 1939. Please help us again to throw out this hideous piece of totalitarianism that is threatening to extinguish our freedom.
Reader Rob completely misunderstands what democracy is all about. Indeed, the goal of the presidential elections is to find someone such that there is "no one better". And sometimes such a choice is not achieved immediately, by communist-style unanimous votes, but after 3rd or 4th round. Democracy chooses the representatives among the people, not among Gods, altough Klaus is pretty close to the latter, anyway. Everything else in Rob's comment is just an irrational paranoia and doesn't deserve further discussions.
After having lived here for 8 years, I can tell you that there is no such thing as a constitutional crisis, due to the fact that the Czech "constitution" doesnt really support democracy in any way whatsoever. The parliamentary elections AND the presidential elections are NOT democratic at all. Prague reeks of cronyism and corruption, with Mr. Klaus at the helm. This man "won" both of his Parliamnet appointments solely due to the fact that they could find no one better. He had to, humiliatingly, "win" election on the 3rd and 4th votes. So when Klaus acts as though he [...]
Read the full comment has some kind of mandate, he doesnt, he doesnt at all. And the "polls" that are held in the Czech Republic are about as scientific as the rhythm method is for contraception.
The comments about a looming "constitutional crisis" in Czechia is simply misinformation.
Except for 4 green deputies (who will not be elected again, polls indicate), everyone has said that they don't intend to fire the president and the president is acting exactly as the constitution expects. For example, social democracy just backed the president. No open disagreement can be expected because 91% of the Czech citizens, according to TV polls, think that Klaus's condition is justified.
Some people may disagree with Klaus but it's absurd to suggest that he is doing any [...]
Read the full comment wrongdoing. A constitutional crisis would mean a disagreement who has the competences to do various things: there is surely no such disagreement in the Czech Republic today.
It may be expected that the Czech government will accept Klaus's demands and take them as their own, too. What may have happened is that the previous governments were negotiating in the EU in a sloppy way, so our foreign policy failed in this sense.
However, that can't change the fact that Klaus ratifies international treaties and he has the right to do every single thing he is doing. I am sure that various EU "federal" politicians find the attitude of the Czech Republic inconvenient. But the EU officials here are to serve the citizens, not the other way around.