No Slovak, Hungarian objections to Czech opt-out for now- Fischer

The summit is expected to discuss the opt-out which Klaus has set as a condition for his signing the Lisbon treaty, which includes the Charter. The Czech Republic is the last of the 27 EU states not to have ratified it.

Slovak leaders say they want the summit's final document to contain a formulation making it clear that the Benes decrees cannot be violated if the Charter came into force.

Hungary, for its part, has not ruled out its vetoing the Czech opt-out demand.

Fischer said he has information about Slovakia's and Hungary's reservations only from the media, but did not gain the same impression at talks with individual politicians.

Klaus says he seeks the opt-out out of fear that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights may enable the German deportees to claim their former property on Czech soil, confiscated from them under Czechoslovak President Edvard Benes's decrees after World War Two.

The decrees also provided for the expropriation of a number of Czechoslovak Hungarians, who lived mainly in southern Slovakia.

Klaus's last-minute touching on the Benes decrees has raised tension in the EU. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico previously voiced fears that the possible granting of the opt-out to Czechs would push Slovakia into disadvantage in terms of possible property claims by the Germans or Hungarians whose property was confiscated in Czechoslovakia after the war.

Bratislava originally sought the same opt-out, but it later reassessed its position.

"We don't want any exemptions," Fico said in Brussels today.

Citing lawyers, he said there is no need to fear a violation of the Benes decrees. "If so, we need not fear this. So let's say it clearly in the [summit's] final document," Fico said.

Hungary, for its part, is against the Benes decrees being mentioned. It wants a solution to calm down the Czech apprehensions, but without changing the equilibrium achieved in the Lisbon treaty, Hungarian PM Gordon Bajnai said today.

Whatever the solution may be, it should not have a negative impact on citizens outside the Czech Republic, Bajnai said.

He said the strong mandate he received from the Budapest government before the summit may even include the use of veto by Hungary. Nevertheless, the negotiations are yet to be held, he pointed out.

Autor: ČTK
www.ctk.cz