Reluctant Czech Lawmakers Pass European Treaty | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 18.02.2009

After repeated delays, the Czech parliament's lower house narrowly passed the EU reform treaty on Wednesday, Feb. 18. The Czech Republic is the last member state yet to vote on the accord, which passed parliaments in 25 countries but was rejected by Irish voters in a June 2008 referendum.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, formerly an opponent of the Lisbon Treaty, said this week that he had changed his mind and would vote in favor of the pact.

The Czech parliament passed the pact 125 to 61 on Wednesday, but the vote was closer than it appeared. A so-called "constitutional majority" of 120 of the 200-seat chamber had to approve the measure.

Minor nitpick: AFAIK Topolánek never declared opposition to Lisbon in public, it was all a question of getting the votes in parliament when many in his own party would listen to President Klaus.

As for the major point of contention that I don't find much reported in English: it was neither economic issues, nor 'regulation', nor the power of Brussels -- it was the Beneš decrees.

Reminder: Edvard Beneš was Czechoslovakia's post-WWII President, who governed first by issuing more than a hundred decrees. A few among these make up all the, eh, controversy: those declaring the collective guilt of ethnic Germans and Hungarians, ordering their expropiation and deportation; which was executed to a large extent against ethnic Germans. Fears about restitution claims, plus unwillingness to revise collective historical myths, led all Czech governments so far to insist on the continued validity of the Decrees; with a silly legal argument (in which the EU pretended that the laws no longer have a relevance) they even survived EU accession.

Now, the vote on the Lisbon Treaty went ahead and suceeded after the adoption of a motion declaring that the Lisbon Treaty won't have effect on prior laws, including the Beneš decrees.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}