PRESIDENT VACLAV Klaus of the Czech Republic is a long-standing sceptic about deeper European integration, a staunch defender of inter-governmentalism, a pessimist about small state influence in the EU - and an extremely active participant in his country's current politics.
As the Czechs prepare to take over the European Union presidency from the French in January, Mr Klaus is doing his utmost to ensure its parliament does not ratify the Lisbon Treaty. He openly continued this campaign during his state visit to Ireland, which ended yesterday, by roundly criticising the treaty at a press conference held with one of its most prominent Irish opponents.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin described this yesterday as an inappropriate intervention by a visiting head of state, given that the Government is engaged in discussions about the Lisbon Treaty with other member states on behalf of the Irish people. That is the least that can be said about Mr Klaus's comments. While he has every right to meet whoever he wishes in the private part of the visit, it is a different matter - and a definite breach of normal diplomatic protocol - to intervene in this way. He is perfectly entitled to express his views about Ireland's role concerning the future of the Lisbon Treaty, since we share a common politics on the subject in the EU which requires open deliberation and contestation. But this does not extend to speaking as Czech president during an official visit to Ireland when his criticisms do not in fact represent those of the Czech government.
That government is made up of a coalition led by Mirek Topolanek, a member of the same Civic Democrat conservative party as Mr Klaus, along with the Christian Democrats and Greens. But the government supports the Lisbon Treaty and wants to see it ratified by the Czech parliament after the country's supreme court rules later this month, when it is expected to pronounce the treaty constitutionally sound. In recent senate and regional elections coalition parties have taken a drubbing by the opposition Social Democrats, who also support the treaty. As a result the opposition has reached an agreement with the government to give it parliamentary support during the EU presidency, but on condition that Lisbon is ratified. In the meantime Mr Klaus is actively scheming against Mr Topolanek's continuing leadership of the Civic Democrats in the hope of seeing him replaced by someone more willing to oppose Lisbon.
This is the highly politicised context in which Mr Klaus's comments here must be judged. It makes them not only inappropriate but partisan. His open support for Declan Ganley's Libertas organisation, together with the other European representatives who attended the dinner given by Mr Ganley in Dublin, show their alliance is dominated by right-wing opponents of deeper EU integration. Their efforts to make June's European Parliament elections into a referendum on Lisbon have little prospect of success on such a limited political base. This belies Mr Ganley's frequent invocation of European loyalties and reveals it to be predominantly a narrow right-wing alliance increasingly out of tune with the times.