Czech PM stands up for President Klaus in EP
January 15, 2009 by George Flemming
Filed under EU News
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has stood up for President Vaclav Klaus in the European Parliament, and he sharply objected to some MEPs who criticised Klaus. Topolanek said the attacks on Klaus touched him personally.
Klaus, a well-known Eurosceptic, has been often criticised in the EU over his negative stance on the Lisbon treaty to reform the EU institutions that is to replace the rejected European constitution.
Besides Ireland, which rejected the treaty in a referendum last June, the Czech Republic is the only EU member state that has not yet voted on it.
The whole ratification process has so far been completed in 23 EU member states.
“Vaclav Klaus is the icon of Czech transformation in the 1990s [after the fall of the previous regime]. Thanks to him we are successful and we have overcome the first ten years in good health,” Topolanek told MEPs.
He added that if the EU lost the ability to lead a public debate and sought unification, it would not be “his EU.”
Klaus was today criticised, for instance, by MEP Martin Schulz, head of the Socialist EP group, and by Czech Communist (KSCM) MEP Miloslav Ransdorf.
“I sharply protest against the attacks on Vaclav Klaus,” Topolanek said.
He reacted to remarks by Schulz who said the Czech Republic is enough punished by its head of state. Schulz also expressed hope that Klaus would be soon replaced by someone as European as Charles IV at Prague Castle, the Czech presidential seat.
Topolanek mentioned exactly Charles IV (1316-78), King of Bohemia and Roman Emperor, as the symbol of universalism that he intends to pursue during the Czech Republic’s EU presidency in the first half of 2009.
Ransdorf today sharply criticised Klaus’s recent article in the daily Financial Times in which Klaus wrote that the EU should relieve or abolish its labour, environmental and health regulations in the fight with the economic crisis.
The Lisbon treaty was also touched upon in the EP debate with Topolanek today.
Czech MEP Jana Bobosikova called on Topolanek to openly say that the Lisbon treaty is dead after the Irish referendum.
MEP Graham Watson, on the contrary, criticised the Czech Republic for not having ratified the treaty yet.
Topolanek pointed out, in reaction to the MEPs’ words, that he had negotiated the Lisbon treaty on behalf of the Czech Republic and he would vote for it in Czech parliament though in his opinion, the Lisbon treaty was not perfect.
“The (Lisbon) treaty is basically mediocre. It is slightly worse than the (treaty) from Nice and slightly better than the next treaty to come,” Topolanek said.
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