Blackmail. The 26 heads of State and government finally gave in to Czech President Vaclav Klaus’ blackmail. The latter will ratify the Lisbon Treaty but will enjoy the same protocol established in 2007 for Poland and the UK, which exempts them from the obligations included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. Officially, Vaclav Klaus was afraid that the EU Treaty would question the Benes treaties used to expel and evict three million Germans from the Sudetes and 120,000 Hungarians from Slovakia. What the Czech euroskeptic asked for wasn’t easily swallowed: “The Lisbon Treaty is about the EU’s future while the Benes treaties are part of Europe’s negative past, which caused pain and suffering to million of people. We shouldn’t mix the past and the future” declared Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai. Keen to see the Treaty enforced, the European leaders nevertheless agreed to a last derogation.
lowed: “The Lisbon Treaty is about the EU’s future while the Benes treaties are part of Europe’s negative past, which caused pain and suffering to million of people. We shouldn’t mix the past and the future” declared Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai. Keen to see the Treaty enforced, the European leaders nevertheless agreed to a last derogation.
Provisions of the protocol. The Czech Republic will enjoy the same protocol the UK and Poland did (see our dispatch No. 080378), which contains pro
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