News

The Czech Republic has been criticized by the Council of Europe for failing to acknowledge the International Criminal Court. Eight of the Council of Europe’s 47 members are yet to acknowledge the court; they include Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. The International Criminal Court was set up in 2002 to try individuals on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It has been recognised by 108 countries around the world. The Czech Senate signed a bill acknowledging the court in July last year, which was subsequently approved by the lower house in October. The bill is now pending the signature of President Václav Klaus, who is refusing to sign it, saying it is unconstitutional.

The majority of Czechs would like their Parliament ratify the EU’s Lisbon treaty, a poll conducted by the STEM agency and released on Wednesday suggests. A total of 64 percent of respondents said that they were for the ratification of the EU reform document, a 19 percent increase on last October’s results. Some 70 percent of those questioned, however, said that they did not understand exactly what the Lisbon treaty was for. Neither the Czech Parliament nor the Senate have voted yet on Lisbon’s ratification. The Czech Republic is, as such, the only country in the EU yet to make a decision upon the treaty. On Tuesday, MPs decided to postpone a debate on the Lisbon treaty until February 15 at the earliest.

In related news, sales of plane tickets shot up in the Czech Republic last year by almost ten percent. According to data released by the International Air Transport Association, Czechs bought over 790,000 plane tickets in 2008, and spent a sum worth more than ten billion crowns on flights. According to the news website iDnes.cz which released the figures, sales could in fact be even higher, as no low-cost airlines have been counted in this survey. The study found that the average cost of a plane ticket fell by 400 crowns to 10,242 crowns (nearly 500 USD) in 2008.

The lower house of the Czech Parliament is postponing a debate planned for next Tuesday on ratifying the European Union’s Lisbon treaty, the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, Miloslav Vlček, told reporters. The matter had already been postponed once, in December. The lower house is now set to discuss Lisbon after meetings of its foreign affairs and constitutional-legal committees planned for February 15.

Even if it is ratified in Parliament, the Czech president, Václav Klaus, has indicated he will not sign the EU’s reform treaty unless it is approved by Ireland; Irish voters rejected Lisbon in a referendum last June and are due to vote on it again this year.