Times Online
October 26, 2009
David Charter

Václav Klaus, the Czech President, who is the last hurdle to full ratification of the Lisbon treaty, has made a final attempt to derail the agreement.

In a submission to the Czech constitutional court, which will decide tomorrow whether the treaty is compatible with the country’s constitution, Mr Klaus has suggested that it should be subject to a referendum.

The President, who is the only head of state yet to sign the treaty, attacked the EU notion of “shared sovereignty” as a contradiction that effectively means a loss of national control.

President Klaus made his written statement in support of a case against the treaty brought by 17 Czech senators, who have asked judges to rule that the agreement is unconstitutional because it transfers powers to Brussels. He also asked for a ruling on whether the treaty changed the terms of the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU in 2004 so significantly that a new referendum should be ordered.

The court will hold a one-day public hearing tomorrow in a case seen as the final legal obstacle to the treaty in the Czech Republic.

President Klaus has vowed not to sign until after the court’s verdict, which is expected in a week’s time. He added a further condition to his signature earlier this month by demanding an opt-out from the treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

This, he claimed, would enable ethnic German families expelled after the Second World War the chance to reclaim land and property at the European Court of Justice, despite EU insistence that the charter would not apply retrospectively. On Friday his aides suggested that he was about to accept a compromise deal from the EU guaranteeing Czech legal rights.

The President, 66, is holding out against a treaty that he dislikes, even though it has been passed by both houses of the Czech parliament. His resistance has also taken the shine off the Irish Republic’s vote in favour of Lisbon at the referendum on October 2.

He was in contact with David Cameron about the possibility of holding out long enough to allow the Conservatives to come to power and hold a British referendum on the treaty but said recently that he would not be able to delay that long. “The Lisbon treaty contains commitments that de facto mean giving up basic attributes of the sovereign state,” President Klaus wrote to the court. “The constitutional court is therefore deciding on a matter that is absolutely fundamental for the future of our country.

“Twenty years after the restoration of our democracy and sovereignty, we are once again dealing with the question whether we should — this time voluntarily — give up the position of a sovereign state and hand over decision-making on our own matters to European institutions outside of the democratic control of our citizens.”

President Klaus based his case against the Lisbon treaty on its extension of qualified-majority voting among the EU’s 27 nations into 40 new policy areas, meaning that the Czech Republic and every other country will lose veto rights in these areas. Supporters of the treaty argue that it will help with the smooth running of the EU after its enlargement from 15 to 27 countries since 2004.

“The substance of sovereignty is an unlimited execution of power. Its sharing negates sovereignty,” he added.

Analysts think it unlikely that the court will uphold his complaints, having dismissed similar questions from Czech senators earlier this year, although this is the first time that it has been asked to rule on the treaty as a whole rather than specific sections.

It comes after the German constitutional court accepted the treaty this summer on the proviso that national powers were enhanced.