Britannia Radio

PRAGUE DAILY MONITOR    23.1.09
ODS senators plan another challenge to Lisbon Treaty in court

Prague, Jan 22 (CTK) - Some senators for the Czech senior ruling 
Civic Democratic Party (ODS) plan to challenge the EU's Lisbon treaty 
at the Czech Constitutional Court (US) again, Czech Television (CT) 
reported Thursday, citing Petr Pakosta, one of the senators involved.

The ODS, whose position is crucial for the treaty's Czech 
ratification, is split in its approach to it.

Senate deputy chairman Jiri Sneberger (ODS) said at a meeting of the 
Senate commission for the constitution Thursday that he had not 
expected any new complaint against "the Lisbon" to be lodged with the 
US, in view of the US's November decision that the treaty is not 
inconsistent with the Czech constitutional order.

The US assessed the treaty at the request of the ODS-dominated 
Senate. It pointed out that it had only focused on the assessment of 
six of the treaty's articles that the Senate had challenged.

The court thus admitted the possibility of other parts of the treaty 
being challenged in the future.

The chairwoman of the Senate commission for the constitution, Jirina 
Rippelova (opposition Social Democrats, CSSD), Thursday recalled that 
a complaint against the Lisbon treaty could be lodged only after the 
treaty is approved by both houses of parliament.

The complaint could be lodged by either at least 17 senators or 41 
deputies or the president, Rippelova said.

She said she expects President Vaclav Klaus to "definitely do so."
Klaus, an Eurosceptic, is known for his criticism of the EU's 
political integration process, including the Lisbon treaty.

A possible new complaint would have to challenge the treaty's 
articles which the Constitutional Court has not discussed yet, 
Rippelova said.

Senate deputy chairman Petr Pithart (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) 
said he cannot imagine the Constitutional Court judges nodding to the 
challenged six articles without studying the whole treaty and knowing 
that the rest of it poses no problem either.

The Czech Republic, which holds EU presidency now, is the only of the 
27 EU states not to have taken stand on the Lisbon treaty, which, to 
take effect, needs unanimous consent from all EU members.