Thread: I will not sign Lisbon Treaty, says Czech President

From The Times
October 13, 2009

I will not sign Lisbon Treaty, says Czech President


(Petr David Josek/AP) Vaclav Klaus: the last man holding out

David Charter, Europe Correspondent, in Prague
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The President of the Czech Republic has no intention of signing the Lisbon treaty, a move that might allow David Cameron time to hold a British referendum on Europe.

President Klaus, the fiercely Eurosceptic Czech leader, is the last obstacle for the agreement after its ratification in the other 26 EU states but he has told supporters that he will never sign, The Times has learnt.

Asked during a walkabout on Sunday not to put his name to the treaty, Mr Klaus replied: “Don’t worry, I won’t.â€

Czech government must find solution to Lisbon Treaty hold-up, warns EU President

By Ian Drury
Last updated at 11:23 PM on 13th October 2009

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Europe's top unelected official yesterday ordered the Czech prime minister to sign the Lisbon Treaty.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said demands to reopen negotiations on the revamped European Constitution were 'absurd'.

He told Jan Fischer that his country's Eurosceptic president, Vaclav Klaus, was harming Czech 'interests' by delaying ratification.

Jose Manuel Barroso (right) and Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer give a news conference after their meeting on the Lisbon treaty in Brussels today
Mr Barroso said: 'It makes no sense to reopen the ratification process. It would be completely absurd. It would be surreal, to reopen the Lisbon Treaty ratification process in the 26 other member states.'

He added: 'It is in the interests of nobody, least of all the interests of the Czech Republic, to delay matters further.'

The comments were also taken as a warning to David Cameron, who has threatened to derail the Brussels power-grab if he wins the next election.
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The Tory leader has pledged to hold a referendum if the treaty is not ratified if and when he takes power. A 'No' vote from Britain would blow it out of the water.

Hopes that British voters will be given a say have been raised by President Klaus, who is stalling for time by demanding new conditions.
The Czech Republic is the only country in the 27-member EU yet to ratify the treaty.

It has been approved by the Czech parliament, but final ratification is dependent on a decision by the country's highest court on a legal challenge - and the signature of the famously anti-EU president.
Mr Klaus wants an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which the treaty enshrines as legally-binding.

He fears the charter could enable the families of Germans expelled from the Czech Republic after the Second World War to make legal claims for the return of confiscated property.

He is already holding up the treaty by refusing to ratify it until the Constitutional Court has ruled on a legal challenge against its validity.

He said the opt-out was necessary to protect Czechs from possible property claims by Germans expelled from the country after World War Two.

'The government declares its willingness to discuss a possible solution to this situation with its European partners,' Fischer told a news conference.

A straight opt-out would be difficult to secure, because it could require new ratification in all the other EU member states. Fischer said this was impossible.

'The government is prepared to take this non-standard move, although it considers the re-opening of the ratification process in fellow EU member states impossible,' he said.

It may be easier to secure a political declaration by EU leaders, similar to guarantees given to Ireland to eliminate fears the treaty could infringe Irish neutrality, tax and abortion rules.

A Klaus aide said on Sunday that he wanted a strong and binding guarantee, rather than a political declaration by EU leaders, which was the case for Ireland.

Fischer said the only possibility he saw for achieving the exemptions would be at the summit of EU leaders on Oct 29-30.

He added that the government would at the same time demand a guarantee from Klaus that he would complete ratification without delay if his conditions are met.


Polish President Lech Kaczynski signed the Lisbon Treaty yesterday, meaning only one country stands in the way of Tony Blair becoming the EU president.

His signature means the Czech Republic is the only one of the 27 EU member states left to sign the treaty.

It must be ratified by all 27 member states before it can come into force.


Poland's President Lech Kaczynski signs the treaty during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw

Mr Kaczynski, a eurosceptical conservative, signed the treaty at a ceremony in the presidential palace in Warsaw attended by senior EU officials, including the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.

Before signing he stressed the EU remained a union of sovereign nation states and it must remain open to new members including countries in the Balkans and Georgia.

On Friday Czech President Vaclav Klaus set out his terms for signing the reform treaty, demanding an exemption to protect Prague from post-war property claims and safeguard the sovereignty of the judiciary.

Mr Klaus's demands further complicate the European Union's efforts to implement reforms to give the bloc more global influence.

He said the Czech government should follow the example of Britain and Poland, which won opt-outs on the application of some of the provisions of a Charter of Fundamental Rights which will be given binding force when the Lisbon treaty is ratified.

Mr Klaus said: 'Before ratification, the Czech Republic must, additionally at least, negotiate a similar exemption. I believe that this exemption can be resolved quickly.'

He said the treaty would create a European superstate that gives too much power to Brussels, and has refused to ratify it even though the Czech parliament has approved it.

President Kaczynski (right) signed the EU's Lisbon Treaty, watched by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

He has been resisting the rest of the EU as well as most Czech political parties, isolating the central European country which already lost some credibility when its government collapsed during the Czech term as EU president in March.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has ruled out any change to the treaty to accommodate Klaus, and Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai urged the Czech leader on Friday to sign.

Mr Bajnai said: "There is a lot to do and there is no reason to paralyse the operations of the European institutions. So I think it would be important that the president of the Czech Republic is also supporting this process by his signature.'

The treaty will create the post of a long-term EU president, a position former prime minister Mr Blair has been tipped to fill.

At a summit at the end of this month EU leaders are supposed to be considering candidates for the new position with a pay and perks package of £3.5million.

The treaty will also bring in a more powerful foreign policy chief and streamlined decision-making.

One of its biggest obstacles was overcome last month when the Irish people voted in a referendum to sign the treaty.

Now watch our video report... Video at the link
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... t-out.html

Eurosceptic Vaclav Klaus forces Prague to ask for EU treaty caveat

Czech president's assent is final hurdle to ratification, and he has demanded an opt-out from charter of rights

Ian Traynor in Brussels guardian.co.uk,
Monday 12 October 2009 20.18 BST


Getting Vaclav Klaus’s signature is the last hurdle to all 27 states agreeing the Lisbon treaty by the end of this year. Photograph: Petr Josek snr /Reuters

The Czech government sought to remove the final hurdle to the Lisbon Treaty today, calling on European leaders to concede a form of words to placate their president and arch eurosceptic, Vaclav Klaus, in return for his quick signature on the reform treaty.

The 27 states have ratified the EU blueprint, the Czech parliament having voted it through in May. But Klaus alone in the EU is as head of state refusing to sign it into force, and has demanded an opt-out from the treaty's charter of fundamental rights. He contends the charter could leave his country vulnerable to property claims from ethnic Germans deported at the end of the second world war.

With gloom in Brussels, and exasperation in Berlin and Paris, Jan Fischer, the prime minister, moved to resolve the impasse. He would secure "guarantees" from Klaus that he would not cause further delays if European leaders, at a Brussels summit at the end of the month, agreed a formula which could allow Klaus to claim victory, without reopening the treaty.

Fischer said he would present the Klaus demand to the summit, and indicated the need for its quick agreement so the treaty could come into force by the end of the year, as planned.

He spoke after an emergency meeting of the cabinet and talks between him and the president in Prague. Fischer is expected in Brussels tomorrow to explore the issue with Jose Manuel Barroso, the European commission president.

A spokeswoman for the Swedish government, the current EU presidency, said it was too early to say whether Fischer's initiative was workable. But an EU official said: "A declaration can always be found. There's not a lot of goodwill towards the Czechs. But the others will go along if this gets rid of the thing."

Klaus, however, is seen as a maverick, notoriously unpredictable, implacably opposed to the treaty, and liable to spring further surprises.

The treaty, endorsed by an Irish referendum 10 days ago, was signed at the weekend by Poland's head of state, leaving Klaus as the sole blocker. The summit at the end of the month was supposed to decide on who gets the prominent jobs created by the treaty – a Europe president and foreign minister, with Tony Blair a frontrunner for the president post. The Swedish spokeswoman said the appointments would now be shelved until December.

During the negotiations on the treaty two years ago Britain and Poland secured opt-outs from the charter of fundamental rights. Klaus said at the weekend he wanted a similar deal. But the Czech government and parliament endorsed the treaty without requesting an opt-out. Fischer said Klaus had failed to object during the treaty's negotiation. The constitutional court has also given its approval, but only last month was asked by Klaus supporters to reconsider.

EU lawyers say the charter does not leave the Czechs open to German claims. But to allow Klaus to save face, EU leaders would be expected to supply written assurances, as was done with Ireland to encourage referendum support for the treaty.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oc ... -eu-treaty