Brussels, 19/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - If the Czech Republic has its demands met in relation to the opt-out requested by President Vaclav Klaus regarding the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the Lisbon Treaty (EUROPE 9996), Slovakia will ask for the same guarantees to protect its own citizens against possible requests for compensation by Sudeten German families expelled after the Second World War, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has announced. Expulsion was based on the Benes Decrees adopted at the time by Czechoslovakia which split in 1993 to become the Czech Republic and Slovakia. “We will not leave Slovakia in a situation of uncertainty if we feel that one of the seceding countries of former Czechoslovakia has negotiated an exception”, Fico said on television on 18 October. The Swedish EU Presidency cares little for the Slovakian idea that could bring about other claims from other member countries during the European Council on 28/30 October, which is to find a solution to the Czech problem. “I was under the impression that Slovakia had already finished the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty. I haven't seen the declaration by Mr Fico but it must be concerned with some future treaty amendment procedures which do not seem to be in the course of the moment”, Carl Bildt, President-in-Office of the Council, said ironically speaking to the press in Brussels.
In the meantime, in Prague, Vaclav Klaus intimated that he would sign ratification of the new treaty if the European Council at the end of the month gives the Czech Republic a guarantee on the non-retroactivity of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the form of a paragraph in the conclusions of the summit. After the fashion of the guarantees afforded to Ireland in June before the second referendum on the treaty on 3 October, this “Czech guarantee” could be transformed into a protocol to be annexed to the treaty during a forthcoming treaty amendment, for example during the next enlargement. “I guess it will not be possible to stop it or turn it around, however much we would wish to”, Klaus said during an interview with the daily, Lidove Noviny, on 17 October. He also promised that he would not wait for the elections in the United Kingdom before signing ratification as long as the constitutional court gives its go-ahead. It is possible that the court will cast its judgement by the end of the month. A hearing is scheduled for 27 October. (H.B./transl.jl)