Bavarian Prime Minister calls for abolition of Benes decrees

The Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber has again called for the abolition of the so-called Benes decrees, a piece of legislation which sanctioned the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. Speaking at the annual Sudeten German Days in Nuremberg on Sunday, Mr Stoiber said the Benes decrees were an injustice which had no place in the European Union. In his address the Bavarian Prime Minister said that if the Czech Republic does not condemn the post-war expulsion of Germans he will not pay an official visit to the country. He added that discussion on the topic must not stop after the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union.