Foreign ministry recommends separating Czech Lisbon opt-out from Croatia’s EU accession

A legal analysis commissioned by the Czech Foreign Ministry has advised separating the Czech opt-out from the Lisbon Treaty from Croatia’s admission to the EU in an upcoming vote in the Czech Parliament. Although the government originally recommended linking the two issues in one treaty for practical purposes, the analysis warned that opposition to the opt-out from the Social Democrats, who have a majority in the Senate, could complicate Croatia’s accession to the EU. In 2009 President Vaclav Klaus only signed the Lisbon Treaty after the EU agreed to his demand for a Czech opt-out from the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is part of the Lisbon Treaty. The Czech president feared it could open the way for restitution claims by Sudeten Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after the war. The treaty will require a constitutional three fifth majority to get the legislation passed in both houses, meaning that the government needs to win support from at least part of the opposition.