Fischer: ‘no reason’ for Czech Parliament to ratify Lisbon treaty again

Interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer said on Monday that the Czech Parliament had ‘no reason’ to re-examine the EU’s Lisbon treaty in light of guarantees approved in Brussels last week, which pave the way for Irish ratification of the EU reform document. On Friday, EU leaders agreed to a series of guarantees making it possible for the Irish government to hold a new referendum on the Lisbon treaty this autumn. The guarantees are designed to assure Irish voters that Ireland’s traditional neutrality and national sovereignty in certain fields, such as taxes and abortion, will not be jeopardised by the treaty. Last week, Czech President Václav Klaus said that he thought the guarantees changed the treaty, and therefore, the document should be ratified once more by Czech politicians. But, speaking after a government meeting on Monday, Czech PM Jan Fischer said that it would not be necessary to re-ratify the treaty. The Czech Republic’s staunchly eurosceptic President, Václav Klaus, has refused to sign the Lisbon treaty pending Ireland’s approval of the document.