President Klaus hints he may be last to put signature to Lisbon

The Lisbon treaty, a reform document which should reshape the working of the European Union, has to date been ratified by all but four countries of the 27-member block – Ireland, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. Now the Czech president, Václav Klaus, has said he will not make up his mind on whether to ratify the document until all other EU states have reached a decision.

Václav Klaus, photo: CTK

Czech President Václav Klaus wants to be the last man standing in Europe against the Lisbon treaty which he says will increase the democratic deficit in the bloc. The Czech Republic is one of four EU member states not to have completed the document’s ratification. Earlier this year, it was approved by both chambers of the Czech Parliament but it will only be ratified after the president puts his signature to it. But Václav Klaus told Czech Radio on Tuesday that he would not consider any such thing until all other obstacles have been removed.

“First of all, the Irish have not yet voted for the second time; Poland hasn’t ratified the treaty and neither has Germany. So I’m not the “last of the Mohicans” who would fight against everything. Now everybody is waiting to see what the German Constitutional Court is going to do in the coming days. That will be very interesting because if the court says that the treaty goes against the German constitution, then we in Europe have nothing more to talk about.”

Germany’s Constitutional Court is expected to reach a verdict on the treaty next week. But even if the court says the treaty does not contradict the German constitution, the Czech president will not give in. He is planning to withhold his decision anticipating that Czech senators will petition the Czech Constitutional court to review the treaty – for the second time.

“I will certainly be in no hurry, I will certainly wait for all those things I was talking about – including a constitutional petition of Czech senators – I will wait for this to happen.”

Photo: European Commission

Václav Klaus believes that the Czech Republic has no alternative to EU membership. But he has been a long-standing critic of the Lisbon treaty, which he called “a tragic mistake”. He fears that under the treaty, national states will be wiped off the map to be replaced by a European super state, ruled from Brussels.

“This treaty is another significant step towards a huge centralization of Europe, towards a huge suppression of the significance and role of the individual countries in Europe. It’s a giant step on the path from the intergovernmental principle to the supra-national principle- in other words, towards a monolithic European super state.”

A second referendum in Ireland is now scheduled for October. The Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, also said he would not finalize the ratification process in his country until then, and Mr Klaus said he would not act before him. But the Czech president did deny allegations that he would also wait to see if the British Conservatives win the coming general elections in the UK and push for a referendum on the issue.