Irish foreign minister calls Czech president’s comments during state visit ‘inappropriate’

Ireland’s foreign minister, Michael Martin, has criticised Czech President Václav Klaus over ‘inappropriate’ comments made at a meeting with eurosceptics, on the final day of Mr Klaus’s state visit to Ireland. At a meeting with Declan Ganley, the man who led the ‘No’ campaign against Ireland ratifying the Lisbon treaty, the Czech president said that he was afraid that ‘freedom and democracy’ would not be enhanced by the treaty’s ratification. On Wednesday, Ireland’s foreign minister called Mr Klaus’s comments ‘very clearly political’ and deemed them an ‘inappropriate intervention in the context of such a state visit’. President Klaus is one of Europe’s most high profile critics of the Lisbon treaty, which is intended to reform how the EU is run.

The Czech Green Party sharply criticised Mr Klaus on Tuesday, saying his ultra-conservative views, which he propounds without regard to his constitutional position, created an unrealistic picture of the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic is one of the few EU members not to have ratified the Lisbon treaty, aimed at reforming how the bloc is run. The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolánek, said last week that Parliament would vote on the matter during the first few months of next year: that is, during the Czech presidency of the union. However, the document cannot come into force unless Ireland, whose people rejected it in a referendum in June, changes its position.