Opt-out from "Lisbon" for Czechs should expire - Havel

Klaus demanded the opt-out in fears that the charter might enable the transferred Germans to claim their former property on Czech soil, confiscated from them on the basis of the post-war Benes decrees.

Some political parties and the unions expressed fears that the opt-out might restrict social rights of Czech citizens.

The Czech interim government of Jan Fischer agreed on the opt-out at the October EU summit. It is to be embedded in the EU accession treaty with Croatia. Until then it is not ratified.

"I would consider it positive if it (the opt-out) expired, respectively if it did no materialise at all," Havel said in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec programme.

Asked whether he thinks that the opt-out will not take effect in the end, Havel said: "It may come into force, but it will cease to be valid later."

Havel said, in his speech on Saturday evening, that the Czech Republic should share the EU "charter articulating the range of fundamental civilisation values and ideals."

Klaus signed the EU reform Lisbon treaty, as the last EU statesman, only last week, on November 3, after the Czech Constitutional Court (US) ruled that it is in line with the constitutional order and after the EU met his demand for the opt-out for Czechs .

The Social Democrats (CSSD) and the Greens have criticised the opt-out, saying it would weaken the Czechs' rights in the EU.

Klaus, on the contrary, claims that the opt-out would lower the risk of threatening legal guarantees and ownership rights of Czech citizens.

The right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS) have welcomed the opt-out that will have to be ratified by all EU member states, including the Czech Republic. |

The government insists on that the opt-out would not lower the protection of rights in the Czech Republic and would not place Czech citizens at a disadvantage.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz