Klaus: "Lisbon ‘Train’ Hard to Stop"

[Cassandra Troy]

Bloomberg: Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the last European Union leader yet to sign the Lisbon Treaty, suggested he may not continue to stand in the way as the ratification process has gone too far to stop it.

Klaus said in today’s Lidove Noviny that while he “can’t consider” the treaty to be a good thing for Europe or the Czech Republic, “the train with it is going so quickly and is so far that it probably won’t be possible to stop or return it, however much some of us would wish that.” His spokesman Radim Ochvat said he had no additional comment beyond what was published.

Even if it comes into force, it “won’t be the end of history,” Klaus told the newspaper. So far, Klaus has refused to sign the treaty before the Czech Constitutional Court rules on a complaint filed by some Senators.

The president has also demanded an opt-out from the bloc’s Charter of Fundamental Rights to ensure only local courts can decide about property claims from Germans expelled after World War II, before he signs the Lisbon Treaty. The document is intended to overhaul and streamline decision-making in the expanded EU. (...) >>>