Positive signs for Lisbon Treaty

The Constitutional Court is on the verge of ruling that the Lisbon Treaty is compatible with the Constitution, according to legal experts who spoke with The Prague Post.

The court began an open one-day hearing in Brno Oct. 27 and adjourned until Nov. 3, when a ruling is expected.

The case is seen as the final legal obstacle to the treaty in the Czech Republic, the only country in the 27-member European Union yet to ratify the document.

Analysts think it unlikely the court will rule against Lisbon, having dismissed similar questions from senators earlier this year, although this is the first time it has been asked to rule on the treaty as a whole rather than specific sections.

"The most likely decision of the Constitutional Court will be that the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty does not conflict with the constitutional order of the Czech Republic," said Ján Gronský from the Charles University Law Faculty.

Radovan Suchánek, a constitutional lawyer from the same faculty, agreed.

"I believe the court is going to say it complies," he said.

President Václav Klaus has defiantly refused to sign the Lisbon Treaty, despite it being ratified by Parliament, until after the court's verdict, if even then.

On condition of his signing the treaty, he has demanded an opt-out from its Charter of Fundamental Rights and has raised the question on whether the treaty gives the EU the right to revoke the Beneš Decrees.

Klaus insists revoking the decrees would enable Germans who were expelled at the end of World War II to reclaim land and property at the European Court of Justice, despite EU insistence the treaty would not apply retrospectively.

Klaus' stance has come in for criticism from constitutional experts. "I think the attitude of the president with regards to the decrees has no legal basis, and it is only a political position," Suchánek said.

"No legal analysis indicates the decrees are threatened. The president has no relevant legal position."

But another twist in the drawn-out saga has seen Hungary signal it may attempt to block a Czech opt-out based on the decrees.

"Hungary does not agree that the EU should grant an exception to the Czech Republic with regard to the Beneš Decrees," Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Balázs said.

He said Klaus is blocking the Lisbon Treaty no matter what the cost, and the sensitive nature of the decrees opens issues that are not in anybody's interests.

However, Klaus' spokesman hinted that the president, realizing perhaps that once the court rules in favor his room for maneuver is limited, may reconsider his stance. "On Oct. 23, Klaus received a proposal from the Swedish EU presidency, which is a response to his request relating to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech Republic. This proposal corresponds to the ideas of the president, and it can be worked with," said Radim Ochvat, the president's spokesman.

The government has been negotiating with Sweden, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, and aims to secure approval for the opt-out at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels Oct. 29-30.

Klaus wants the government to follow the example of the United Kingdom and Poland, which won opt-outs on the application of some of the provisions of a Charter of Fundamental Rights, which will be given binding force when the Lisbon Treaty is ratified.

The treaty, its backers insist, is vital for a more effective and streamlined EU. Klaus maintains that changing the decision-making institutions of the EU from unanimity to majority, as stated in the treaty, will endanger the sovereignty of smaller nations.

Klaus supported the Constitutional Court case against the treaty brought in September by 17 senators who asked judges to rule that Lisbon is unconstitutional because it transfers sovereign powers to Brussels.

The government, in favor of the treaty, instructed European Affairs Minister Štefan Füle to act on its behalf in proceedings before the Constitutional Court, and he enjoys the full backing of the Prime Minister Jan Fischer.

"The government, already stated in previous submissions, considers the Lisbon Treaty as a whole compatible with the constitutional order of the Czech Republic, and it was negotiated as such," Fisher said.

Tom Clifford can be reached at
tclifford@praguepost.com