"This is a question for lawyers, but I would be afraid of it," Klaus said. The decrees, issued by then Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes after World War Two, opened the door to the transfer of some 2.5 million Germans from the former Czechoslovakia and confiscation of their property, which Sudeten Germans consider an iniquity inflicted upon them. They repeatedly call for their abolition.
The last time they reopened the Slovakia to join the euro next year ...
Former German Chancellor Kohl Plans to Remarry ... issue was at the traditional Sudeten German Days in Nuremberg at the weekend. The opinion that the Lisbon treaty could open the way to the revision of the Benes decrees was tabled by Czech MEP Vladimir Zelezny some time ago. Czech constitutional law expert Vaclav Pavlicek told CTK then that the treaty cannot be applied retroactively. Pavlicek said he is not afraid of a revision of the post-war decrees. He said, however, a problem might theoretically arise fin connection with the application of restitution claims based on the principle of equality of all EU citizens. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (for the Greens) and deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra (senior ruling Civic Democrats, ODS) are not afraid of the decrees' revision either. Vondra said the new treaty does not deal with property questions and that it does not introduce any "new facts" to the Czech legal order. The European Union discussed Benes decrees still before the Czech Republic joined it in 2004. The European Parliament had a study worked out, but it concluded that the decrees do not constitute any obstacle to the Czech Republic's EU entry and that they are not at variance with European law. The legality of ownership acquisition on the basis of Benes decrees was also confirmed by the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg. Klaus repeated today that his objections to the previous so-called European constitution also apply to the Lisbon treaty that replaces it. He said he is now more reserved in his comments on the Lisbon treaty rather because political representatives will be deciding about it, not citizens in a referendum. Klaus said, however, he continues to be of the opinion that the "Lisbon treaty is a move in the bad direction." He did not elaborate. The Czech parliament has already started to discuss the treaty. The Senate has, however, asked the Constitutional Court in April to review the document. The Senate mainly wants to hear the court's opinion on six fields of the treaty. These include the transfer of certain powers to the European level, the possibility to change the way of decision making in the EU Council from the unequivocal to the majority one that would strip the member states of the right to veto, and the way of recognition of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the charter's binding legal effect of the for the Czech Republic.
(Ceske Noviny)
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