Monday, 19 October 2009
After Czech President Vaclav Klaus suggested that the Czech Republic should opt-out from the EU's charter of fundamental rights, a part of the Lisbon Treaty which could enable ethnic Germans who were forced to leave the former Czechoslovakia at the end of the WWII to claim compensation from the Czech Republic, Slovakia has also begun to discuss this opt-out issue at the top level.
After the WWII, 2.6 million Former Czechoslovakian citizens of German ethnicity were forced out due to the Beneš decrees, a series of laws enacted by the Czechoslovakian government-in-exile. Therefore, the Czech President is worried that the Chart of Fundamental Rights of the Lisbon Treaty may give these people rights to property claim. As a result of this, Slovakia, a part of the former Czechoslovakia, started to discuss on the “Czech style opt-out” option to save their national interest.
On October 18th, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico discussed the issue on Czech national TV and said that “"We will not leave Slovakia in a situation of uncertainty if we feel that one of the seceding countries of former Czechoslovakia has negotiated an exception," and added, “For us the Benes Decrees are such an important part of the rule of law, that we cannot allow for Slovakia to be left in any kind of legal uncertainty".
Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak also pointed out this issue on a private TV show the same day by claiming that "Anything that would be agreed for the Czech Republic must be approved by everyone, including us. And we wouldn't vote for something that would get us into an unfavourable or inferior situation."
Unlike the Czech Republic, Slovakia ratified the Lisbon Treaty on April 10, 2008.
It seems that this issue will be one of the top points for discussion at the following EU Summit which take placed on 29-30 October.
Yilmaz KAPLAN (JTW).
