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Mon, Mar 22 2010
EU Presidency optimistic that Klaus will sign Lisbon Treaty
Swedish prime minister Reinfeldt.
Photo: Gunnar Seijbold/ Regeringskansliet
Consultations are proceeding between Sweden, current holder of the European Union presidency, and various Czech officials and other EU member states to come up with a deal that will make it possible for Czech president Vaclav Klaus to sign the Lisbon Treaty – and Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt says that he is "very optimistic" about a signing.
Klaus, well-known as a euroskeptic, has been holding out against signing the treaty, even though it has been approved by both houses of the Czech parliament. Currently, the treaty is being challenged in the Czech constitutional court, which is due to hold a hearing in the case on October 27 2009, and is expected to deliver a verdict soon after that.
After saying that he could not sign the treaty until the constitutional court had pronounced its verdict, Klaus said that he wanted an opt-out on the treaty’s fundamental rights clauses, to prevent land claims by ethnic Germans on the basis of Czechoslovakia’s expulsion of ethnic Germans after the end of World War 2.
Such an opt-out would not be unprecedented, given that the United Kingdom and Poland also have opt-outs from some provisions of the treaty.
"From our contacts with the Czechs and the interview given by President Klaus this weekend, I am very optimistic that the Czech Republic will sign the Treaty of Lisbon, provided that we find a solution to the objections put forward by the Czech Republic," Reinfeldt told journalists on October 21 2009. He said that he was consulting the Czechs "at different levels.
In an interview published on October 17 2009, Klaus said that signing the treaty appeared to inevitable, even though he did not believe that the treaty – which brings significant changes to the workings of the bloc – would be good for his country or for Europe.
Reinfeldt told journalists that the Swedish presidency been in contact with various EU member states to see which solutions would be viable and expects the issue to be discussed at the EU leaders’ summit to be held next week. It is expected that leaders will discuss what formulation would be acceptable, to enable a solution.
Klaus, however, will not be at the summit, to be held in Brussels, but will have a representative present.
Klaus, well-known as a euroskeptic, has been holding out against signing the treaty, even though it has been approved by both houses of the Czech parliament. Currently, the treaty is being challenged in the Czech constitutional court, which is due to hold a hearing in the case on October 27 2009, and is expected to deliver a verdict soon after that.
After saying that he could not sign the treaty until the constitutional court had pronounced its verdict, Klaus said that he wanted an opt-out on the treaty’s fundamental rights clauses, to prevent land claims by ethnic Germans on the basis of Czechoslovakia’s expulsion of ethnic Germans after the end of World War 2.
Such an opt-out would not be unprecedented, given that the United Kingdom and Poland also have opt-outs from some provisions of the treaty.
"From our contacts with the Czechs and the interview given by President Klaus this weekend, I am very optimistic that the Czech Republic will sign the Treaty of Lisbon, provided that we find a solution to the objections put forward by the Czech Republic," Reinfeldt told journalists on October 21 2009. He said that he was consulting the Czechs "at different levels.
In an interview published on October 17 2009, Klaus said that signing the treaty appeared to inevitable, even though he did not believe that the treaty – which brings significant changes to the workings of the bloc – would be good for his country or for Europe.
Reinfeldt told journalists that the Swedish presidency been in contact with various EU member states to see which solutions would be viable and expects the issue to be discussed at the EU leaders’ summit to be held next week. It is expected that leaders will discuss what formulation would be acceptable, to enable a solution.
Klaus, however, will not be at the summit, to be held in Brussels, but will have a representative present.
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Richard - I think the Hungarian currency is the forint, not the crown, and there are around 280 to 300 forints to one euro.
So 20 million Hungarian forints is not actually a great deal of money by international standards.
We should not forget that Hitler invaded the (then) Czechoslovakia in 1938 using the Sudetenland as his excuse. This hardly put the Germans onto moral high ground ! (Note: there is no analogy here with Austria or Hungary).
Boleslaw - it hasnt been resolved due to the financial sums involved. Around 20,000,000 Hungarian crowns were paid in compensation and a billion Austrian schillings. Far fewer people were involved so what would be todays cost for fair compensation to those in Germany???
The same problem existed between Poland and Germany, with Germans expelled from Silesia and Pomerania, and Poles expelled from the region of Lwow and Wilno (Vilnius) by the Soviets. The population movements - and mistreatments - were rather larger than those in the Sudetenland.
However, it has now all been settled (and indeed there is still a German-language school and a bilingual town hall in Opole (Oppeln) in Silesia, 50 km east of Wroclaw / Breslau.
So why are the Czechs (and the Sudeten German lobby too) making such a fuss and threatening the Lisbon Treaty. when Poland has solved a similar but larger problem ?
By the way, in the << national masochism competition >>, the worst civilian expulsion of all was that of the Germans from Konigsberg / Kaliningrad and East Prussia in 1945, by the Russians. That was truly brutal.
Gunter Grass's excellent historical novel "Im Krebsgang / Crabwalk" tells the story of the East Prussian deportees - 12,000 of them - who were drowned on the "Wilhelm Gustloff" evacuation ship when it was torpedoed off the coast of Pomerania by a Soviet submarine in 1945. This now qualifies as the world's worst maritime disaster in terms of civilian loss of life.
So the Sudeten Germans got off relatively lightly, and they should remember this. Ku pamieci...
Vanko - The Sudetanland Germans were treated very harshly by the Czechs following the second world war. More than 2 million were transferred (huge ethnic cleansing!!!)to Germany and between 15 and 200,000 died en route be it in concentration camps or through violence and starvation. It is interesting that Vaclav Havel suggested that compensation was due and perhaps they could return. He even offered an apology. Interesting that Czech compensated Austria and Hungary for expulsions but never the germans. Somewhat of a double, standard
I dont know the history of the Germans expelled from Czech but I would say they have every right to reclaim their property if it was stolen - I mean "confiscated".. Seems no different to the communist confiscation and return of properties including that owned by foreigners (Simeon Saxe Coburg Gothe).