Wednesday, 28 October 2009
The Czech constitutional court has announced that it will give its verdict on the compatibility of the Treaty of Lisbon with the Czech constitution next week. This means that the EU leaders in the EU summit (29-30 October) are unlikely to finalize the Lisbon Treaty process, which is the one of the top issues of the EU.
All member states but the Czech Republic have approved the Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty will lead to major changes in the EU structure to strengthen the Union according to the 21st century’s needs like; the extension of the qualified majority voting (QMV), and the creation of a President of the European Council and a High Representative for Foreign Affairs. Moreover, this Treaty will give new shape of the European Commission whose expiration date is next Saturday; therefore, the decision of the Czech Constitutional court also affect the formation of the Commission.
17 Czech senators have lodged a second challenge against the Treaty at the Constitutional Court on 29 September 2009 by claiming its infringing the national sovereignty. Aftermath of this opposition attempt against the Lisbon Treaty, Czech President Vaclav Klaus has said that he would wait the decision of the Court to sing the Treaty. The Court will possibly give its decision on November 3 when it reconvenes.
In addition to this procedural obstacles, Mr. Klaus also argued that the Czech Republic should opt-out from the EU's charter of fundamental rights, a part of the Lisbon Treaty; because, according to him, in parallel with this charter, ethnic Germans who were forced to leave the former Czechoslovakia at the end of the WWII in parallel with “Beneš decrees” will be able to claim compensation from Czech Republic.
After the Swedish Presidency proposal, this opt-out problem would be simply solved by involving the name of Czech Republic alongside the countries that are also exempt from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, namely, Poland and the UK.
By Yilmaz KAPLAN (JTW)
