"You can lead a horse to water, but - - - -" . Bullying is the prime
weapon of discipline in the EU
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EU OBSERVER 22.1.09
Pressure on Prague won't help ratify Lisbon, minister says
ELITSA VUCHEVA
BRUSSELS - Ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech Republic
is a "domestic democratic process," and external pressure aimed at
speeding up the process is not helping, Czech deputy prime minister
for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra has said.
Mr Vondra - whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency
- said he expected the Czech parliamentary committees to finish their
work on the treaty "in the month of February and then [the treaty]
will be passed to the vote of the house and also of the Senate."
He stressed that Prague should not be pressured to speed up the
process, as "the quality of the decision is the most important,"
rather than the timing.
"We are a responsible country, but I think you should be aware that
this is our domestic democratic process," Mr Vondra told MEPs in the
constitutional affairs committee on Thursday (22 January).
"And any kind of pressure coming from outside is not helpful, I
think. Give us a chance to go through that process," he added.
The Czech parliament was expected to ratify the Lisbon Treaty at the
beginning of February, but this timetable has slipped.
The parliament's foreign committee on Wednesday interrupted its
debate on the document without taking a position, adjourning until 15
February, Czech news agency CTK reports.
The committee's chairman, Jan Hamacek, said the February plenary vote
on the Lisbon Treaty could be postponed too, according to CTK.
The Czech Republic, Ireland, Germany and Poland are the four
remaining EU states yet to finalise ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
The Czechs' 'different type of mentality'
Meanwhile MEPs also cornered Mr Vondra about comments made by Czech
Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek in the Strasbourg plenary last week on
the Lisbon Treaty.
At the time, Mr Topolanek said: "The Lisbon Treaty is in fact an
average one. It is a little bit worse than [the Treaty of] Nice and
little bit better than the future treaty."
But the premier was in fact referring to a traditional Czech joke in
which one is asked: "How do you like this year?" and the reply is:
"Worse than the previous but better than the next one," Mr Vondra
explained.
The Czech mentality "is a bit of a different type of mentality if you
compare to former imperial powers such as Spain or the UK," he added,
encouraging MEPs to look into Czech history to better understand his
country.
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