The Irish "no" can rather harm than help the Czech centre-right coalition government of Mirek Topolanek, Zbynek Petracek writes in the daily Lidove noviny (LN) today. He admits that Topolanek (Civic Democrats, ODS) can now claim that his so far reserved stance on the EU reform treaty was fully substantiated. However, without the treaty he will have nothing to "trade in" in the coalition, for instance to barter the EU reform treaty for his coalition partners' support of the German Foreign Minister Criticized For Not Meeting Dalai Lama ...
Merkel Receives Award for Promoting European Unity ...
CzechRep may face trial over recognition of qualifications ... planned U.S.
radar base on Czech soil, Petracek says. It is only certain that the Czech EU presidency will proceed according to an old model, he adds. "French President Nicolas Sarkozy will have a more important topic for a debate when he arrives in Prague on Monday. It was exactly the French who experienced three years ago that the voters' no to the European constitution had not caused troubles to their country, but to their government," Petracek notes. This is no good news for Topolanek's government in the situation where the cabinet has no clear majority, Petracek concludes. The Irish no has made the upcoming Czech EU presidency more dramatic, Radej Honzak writes in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) today. On the one hand, the situation has clarified. The Czechs will not have to prepare two scenarios for chairing the EU as it is almost certain that the Lisbon treaty would not take effect as of January 1, 2009 when the Czech Republic takes up the presidency. On the other hand, the Czechs would have to solve the impact of the Irish decision and see to the EU's internal functioning during the presidency, Honzak says. Moreover, the Union will soon start asking whether Prague will not halt its own ratification of the Lisbon treaty. If only one country did so, it would probably mean a definitive end of the efforts to carry out broad reforms of the EU institutions, Honzak, reporter of Brussels' daily Europolitics, writes. Supporters of European integration would like to avoid such a possibility at any cost, while its opponents view the Irish no as a clear argument for halting the whole process. Part of Europe will now definitively call on the Irish to repeat the ratification of the Lisbon treaty, Honzak adds. In any case, the EU summit to be held in a week will mainly focus on the Lisbon treaty and the EU institutional reforms and all delegates, including Czech PM Mirek Topalenk will have to explain their stance on a new problem, Honzak writes. "Only then it will become apparent whether the deepest crisis in the EU's history started on Friday, June 13, 2008 or not," Honzak concludes. The Brussels officials must "grind their teeth" in desperation after the rejection of the Lisbon treaty by Ireland that has profited from EU membership more than any other country, Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in Pravo today. He says the intention to make Europe a grand world player that could compete with the United States, China, Russia, India and other powers is praiseworthy. However, the Czech Eurosceptics mistrust idealists and "bloody foreigners" and they do not believe that the Czech Republic can be less dependent of big world players as a member of any community. The EU was created to prevent the WWII atrocities from repeating, in which it has succeeded for 63 years. But the plans were more universal, striving for the creation of a certain "Continent of the Sun" by peaceful means, Mitrofanov adds. "Thanks to the Sisyphus-like officials in Brussels we are living in the most peaceful and prosperous part of the world," he writes. Yet the Brussels official expected too much from European citizens. As many of them still believe that "charity begins at home," Mitrofanov writes in Pravo. Elsewhere in Lidove noviny, Petr Kolar comments on the government coalition's obstructions in parliament, saying that the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) now criticise the same practice that they themselves applied when they they were in power. Kolar points out that the coalition parties, the ODS, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Greens (SZ), have a great chance to win majority in the lower house committees by electing one more member from their camps into each committee. Moreover, they could thereby fulfil the plan to remove CSSD deputies David Rath and Bohuslav Sobotka as the heads of the health and budget committees, respectively. The opposition Communists (KSCM) and Social Democrats stress that these changes would deny the principle of proportional representation in the lower house. However, such criticism is expedient, Kolar says. It would namely logically ensue from this principle that the election winners should have more that the losers. "The Social Democrats were aware of this in the previous election tenure when as the strongest government party they filled so many posts as they could. For the first time since the CSSD's strong assertive entering in 1996, a lower house chairman [CSSD's Lubomir Zaoralek] came from the same party as the prime minister," Kolar writes in conclusion.
(Ceske Noviny)
more info >>
<< Back