CZECH PRESIDENT Vaclav Klaus has promised to sign the Lisbon Treaty if EU leaders grant his country an opt-out from the charter of fundamental rights at a summit in Brussels today.
Mr Klaus, who will not attend the two-day summit, gave the assurance to Czech prime minister Jan Fischer at a meeting yesterday in Prague.
“Yes I have this guarantee, I have this assurance from the president, from our meeting late yesterday afternoon. I have no reason not to trust him,” said Mr Fischer, who will outline the president’s demands over dinner tonight.
The Czech Republic is the last remaining EU state to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, which will reform how the EU works and create several high-profile EU jobs including the prestigious post of president of the European Council.
Speculation leading up to the summit has focused on whether former British prime minister Tony Blair can win enough support from EU leaders to be appointed president.
But the refusal of Mr Klaus, a trenchant Eurosceptic, to sign the treaty has forced EU leaders to postpone appointing a council president and a beefed-up EU foreign affairs chief.
Swedish diplomats said the formal talks at the summit would focus on getting all EU states to agree to provide an opt-out from the charter, which is a bill of rights made legally binding by the treaty.
Mr Klaus has raised concerns that the charter could be invoked by ethnic Germans who were expelled from Czechoslovakia after the second World War to claim property rights.
Sweden is proposing to offer the Czech Republic the opt-out to enable the treaty to enter into force. But several other states have raised concerns about the Czech demand, which has angered many EU leaders.
Slovakia has indicated that it may want similar concessions as those offered to the Czechs. Austria, Germany and Hungary, who all have citizens that were expelled from Czechoslovakia after the second World War, have all raised concerns about the request.
EU diplomats said yesterday that a deal on an opt-out was being negotiated but that it was still not certain given the extremely sensitive issues being discussed.
Granting the opt-out would remove a major obstacle to Czech ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Another hurdle could be cleared on Tuesday when the Czech constitutional court is expected to issue a judgment on whether the treaty is compatible with the Czech constitution. Most Czech legal experts expect the court to clear the treaty. It has already dismissed an earlier legal challenge, which was lodged by allies of Mr Klaus.
Due to the uncertainty caused by the Czech Republic’s failure to ratify the treaty no formal decision on the identity of the first president of the European Council will be taken at the summit.
But EU diplomats say that leaders are likely to talk about the scope of the job. Some EU states would like a charismatic high-profile leader like Mr Blair while others prefer a backroom fixer such as Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker.
Other possible compromise candidates are Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende or former Finnish prime minister Paavo Lipponen.