Benes decrees "no obstacle" to Czech EU membership

The Benes Decrees under which more than 2,000,000 ethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the Second World War are not a hindrance to Prague's admission to the European Union, according an official report issued by the European Commission on Friday. The Commission said the study of the decrees carried out by legal experts "had not shown any obstacles to the Czech Republic's accession in the light of the acquis communautaire. The report has been welcomed in Prague, but is likely to anger some groups in neighbouring Austria and Germany, where many ethnic Germans settled after the expulsion. Some politicians in the two countries have called for the Czech Republic to be banned from joining the EU until the decrees are scrapped.