Brussels, 22/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission published the results of its analysis of the legal implications of the 1945 Benes Decrees (deporting Germans, Sudetens, Hungarians and Slovaks) on the chances of the Czech Republic joining the EU. Its findings can be summed up in one line: the Benes Decrees will not prevent the Czech Republic joining the EU in terms of the acquis communautaire. In terms of criminal law, the 19 June 1945 Decree has been repealed and hence cannot be used any more and judgements made in the past can no longer be applied. The Commission says "the Law was not intended as a blanket exculpation of atrocities committed against Germans or Hungarians, although it may have been applied as such on occasions in the past. It does not stand in the way of the Czech Republic prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity still (sic) today". In terms of property, there cannot be any expropriations these days. The restitution of property laws of the 1990s to remedy certain arbitrary collectivisation and expropriation of property rulings against individuals between 1948 and 1990 are not a new application of the Benes Decrees. "The non-discrimination provisions of EU law, which will fully apply in the Czech Republic from accession, do not require changes in the restitution legislation because no new claims can be introduced any more." The Commission noted the Czech Republic's official position of feeling it can restrict the number of restitution requests for valid reasons and the fact the Czech government could envisage other means for settling certain cases, such as financial compensation.
EUROPE will return to Monday evening's in camera hearings on the Benes Decrees by the EP Foreign Affairs Committee (see Europe of 5 October, p.7 on the Frowein report requested by the European Parliament, which follows the same lines as the Commission's analysis, and Europe of 9 October, p.4 and 12 October, p.10 on the legal opinions opposing these views requested by Berndt Posselt and Edmund Stoiber).