Czech Communists to propose referendum on Lisbon Treaty

The Czech Communist Party will propose a referendum on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The party’s deputy chair Jiří Dolejš said on Friday that the Communists would submit a proposal to this end to Parliament’ lower house next week because they believed citizens themselves should decide on the Treaty, rather than the Czech Parliament. The communist proposal is not expected to succeed as other parties had already announced they wanted Parliament to ratify the new EU treaty. The ruling Civic Democrats, however, are considering approaching the Constitutional Court to find out whether the Lisbon Treaty does not contradict the Czech constitution.