Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100Wed, 22 Jul 2026 12:47:05 +0200https://english.radio.cz/european-parliament-endorses-eu-constitution-civic-democrats-still-fighting-8094770© 2026 Radio Prague International The European Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly endorsed the European Union's first Constitution, which aims to streamline the way the EU works. Nearly all the mainstream parties in the 732 member Parliament supported the treaty, with 500 deputies in favour, 137 against and 40 abstaining from the vote. The European Constitution will only come into force if all 25 member states ratify it, and one of the countries where the ratification process is seen as potentially problematic is the Czech Republic. Although the coalition government is strongly in favour, the leading opposition party the Civic Democrats, along with the communists who between them hold two thirds of the country's seats in the European Parliament raised their hands against it. We called Jan Zahradil, of the Civic Democrats, to ask why he voted against the European Constitution: encr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas)webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) https://english.radio.cz/sites/default/files/images/eustava_hlasovani2.jpg?timestamp=1590311314 https://english.radio.cz/european-parliament-endorses-eu-constitution-civic-democrats-still-fighting-8094770 Radio Prague International Radio Prague International radio.prague.int@gmail.com clean 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9