Svoboda: EU foreign ministers surprised at Klaus attitude to poll

Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda has said foreign ministers from a number of EU countries have expressed their surprise that President Vaclav Klaus had failed to make clear whether Czechs should vote "Yes" in the recent EU referendum. Speaking to reporters after returning from an EU meeting in Luxembourg, Mr Svoboda said the Czech president was the only head of state of a candidate country to refuse to recommend EU membership to his citizens. President Klaus urged people to vote in the poll, but said they must make up their own minds. He was also quoted as saying that EU membership was a marriage of convenience, not love. In the end, 77 percent of people voted "Yes" to joining the EU.