EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has trampled on the EU's unspoken rule that presidency countries do not offer a controversial opinion on the sensitive topic of the moment. Speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday (14 January), Mr Topolanek, in charge of the EU for the first half of this year, offered only half-hearted support for the EU's new rulebook - seven years in the making and facing an uncertain future - and expressed doubts that Czech citizens would approve it in a referendum. Prague - the Czech capital will be working closely with Dublin on the Lisbon treaty "It's an average treaty, a bit better than the [current] Nice treaty," he said and expressed annoyance about the pressure on member states to ratify the Lisbon treaty. "Telling member states in advance that they have to ratify the treaty and ...that they do not have the right ...to decide whether to approve it or not is absurd," Mr Topolanek said, according to AFP news agency.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has trampled on the EU's unspoken rule that presidency countries do not offer a controversial opinion on the sensitive topic of the moment.
Speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday (14 January), Mr Topolanek, in charge of the EU for the first half of this year, offered only half-hearted support for the EU's new rulebook - seven years in the making and facing an uncertain future - and expressed doubts that Czech citizens would approve it in a referendum.
Prague - the Czech capital will be working closely with Dublin on the Lisbon treaty
"It's an average treaty, a bit better than the [current] Nice treaty," he said and expressed annoyance about the pressure on member states to ratify the Lisbon treaty.
"Telling member states in advance that they have to ratify the treaty and ...that they do not have the right ...to decide whether to approve it or not is absurd," Mr Topolanek said, according to AFP news agency.
One of you is wrong. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
