Vaclav Klaus blijft nog steeds de meest - enige? - betrouwbare leider van Europa (Vincent De Roeck)

Ondanks de juridische nederlaag in het Verenigd Koninkrijk die de uiteindelijke ratificatie van het Verdrag van Lissabon niet meer kon tegenhouden en ondanks de weinig verhulde plannen van de Duitse president om te anticiperen op een rechtzaak en het geratificeerde verdrag gewoon te ondertekenen, blijkt het proces toch niet zo goed te verlopen voor de Eurofielen. De Poolse president Kaczynski verkondigde vorige week dat hij de ratificatie niet zal ondertekenen en ook Vaclav Klaus, de president van de Tsjechische Republiek, is duidelijk: Tsjechië zal het verdrag niet ratificeren. Of mijn emails naar de Tsjechische leiders iets uitgehaald hebben, weet ik niet, maar het resultaat is er in elk geval wel.

Dit is het antwoord van het kabinet Vaclav Klaus op mijn recente emails omtrent de ratificatie van het Verdrag van Lissabon:

Dear Mr De Roeck,

Thank you for your letter addressed to President Klaus regarding the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Since unanimity of all the EU member states is required in order for the Lisbon Treaty to be ratified and one member state voted against it, the ratification cannot be continued and the Treaty cannot take effect. Not only the ratification of the Treaty must stop now, but also the implementation of the Treaty must stop now.

The following are President Klaus’s press statements in the wake of the Irish referendum: The Lisbon Treaty project ended today with the decision of the Irish voters and its ratification cannot be continued. In one of the 27 EU countries a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was held. In one only EU country the politicians allowed the citizens to express their opinion. The result is hopefully a clear message to everybody. It is a victory of freedom and reason over artificial elitist projects and over the European bureaucracy.

The whole of Europe should thank the Irish people for slowing down the current erroneous processes towards more unification, towards the suppression of nation states, towards a ‘Europe of regions’, and towards greater centralization from above, which the Lisbon Treaty embodied. The referendum was a perfect example of what ordinary people think about this development – at odds with the EU-supporting politicians whose motivation lies elsewhere.

I cannot imagine any development other than recognition of the fact that this is not the way to go. Let’s seek a European model different from a supranational state with its centre in Brussels . Let’s go back to a community of friendly, effectively cooperating states. Let’s keep most of the competencies on the level of states.

We should let people living on the European continent be Czechs, Poles, Italians, Danes, and not make Europeans of them. That is a flawed project. The difference between a Czech, a Pole, an Italian and a Dane (as random examples) and a European is akin to the difference between Czech, Polish, Danish languages and Esperanto. ‘Europeanness’ is Esperanto: an artificial language.

Ratification cannot be continued, the Treaty can no longer enter into force. To continue as though nothing has happened would be pure hypocrisy. This would be more significant news about the ‘state of the Union ’ than the Irish NO. The ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech Republic ended last Friday. To pretend something else is undignified – at least if we presume to live in a world where one plus one equals two.

You can find more information in English on www.klaus.cz. The Czech Constitutional Court continues to scrutinize the compliance of the Lisbon Treaty with the Constitution. In this respect the President’s reply to the Court of June 3 (i.e. before the Irish vote) is still up-to-date and you can find its English translation on the website (the 5 concluding questions are crucial and I believe they will be of interest to you).

I would like to thank you, once again, for your kind feedback, as well as for the wishes for the President’s early recovery.


With all best wishes

Jiri Brodsky
Deputy Director
Foreign Affairs Department
Office of the President of the Czech Republic