Czech PM seeks understanding from Klaus on Lisbon

THE CZECH government says it will discuss with other European Union states how to satisfy president Vaclav Klaus’s demand for an exemption from parts of the Lisbon Treaty in return for his promise not to raise further objections to a charter that he is preventing from becoming law.

After Ireland’s Yes vote and Polish president Lech Kaczynski’s signing of the treaty last Saturday, only Mr Klaus is blocking ratification of a document that is intended to streamline EU decision-making and give it a long-term president and a stronger foreign policy chief.

Mr Klaus says the treaty transfers too much power from national governments to Brussels and paves the way for the creation of a European “superstate”.

Last Friday, he issued an unexpected demand for a special Czech exemption from parts of a rights charter that accompanies the treaty, which he fears would expose Prague to claims for property that belonged to the three million Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after the second World War.

He also insists that he cannot sign the treaty until the Czech constitutional court rules on a last-ditch query on its legality filed by Mr Klaus’s eurosceptic allies. The Czech parliament has already approved the treaty.

“After thoroughly assessing all internal and foreign political aspects, the government declares its readiness to negotiate with its European partners about a possible solution to the current situation,” Czech prime minister Jan Fischer said yesterday.

Reiterating his determination to have the treaty fully ratified by the end of this year, Mr Fischer said the only time for a final agreement on Mr Klaus’s demand was at an EU Council meeting scheduled for October 29th-30th.

“That’s the only option,” he said. “I don’t expect an extraordinary EU Council meeting on that and the next meeting is in December, which is too late.”

It is not clear whether Mr Klaus would accept the kind of “political declaration” from EU leaders that Ireland secured to ease fears that the treaty could compromise Irish positions on neutrality, tax and abortion. He may want the kind of opt-out secured by Britain on employment legislation and by Poland on family law, which would necessitate lengthy re-ratification of the treaty.

Mr Fischer insisted however that his government “considers the re-opening of the ratification process in fellow EU member states impossible”, and demanded that Mr Klaus give guarantees that he would not place more obstacles in the treaty’s path and would sign it if his demands were met.

“We are considering the form and the method of the explicit guarantees, because our partners in Europe are then awaiting guarantees from the government that this is the last condition and that nothing else is standing in the way of ratification,” Mr Fischer said.

He added that cabinet wanted “the president to give a clear guarantee that if this condition is met and the constitutional court does not find the treaty counter to the constitutional order, he will immediately complete ratification”.

Mr Fischer is expected to meet EU officials in Brussels today.