EU offers Czechs Lisbon treaty opt-out (Roundup)

Oct 29, 2009, 21:12 GMT

   Brussels - European Union leaders agreed Thursday to offer the Czech Republic an opt-out from a key bill of rights in return for ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, diplomats said at a summit in Brussels.

The agreement should clear the way for Czech President Vaclav Klaus to sign the treaty, bringing the pact into law across the EU within weeks - if the Czech constitutional court allows him to.

The Czech obstacle has stalled negotiations on the composition of the next European Commission, whose mandate formally expires on Sunday, and on a round of appointments for two new posts being created by the treaty: the EU's first permanent president and a more powerful foreign-policy chief.

The late-night agreement allows the Czech Republic not to implement the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, a privilege already secured by Britain and Poland in even later-night negotiations two years ago in Lisbon, diplomatic sources said.

The deal came after Sweden, holder of the EU's rotating presidency, brokered an agreement with Slovakia, Hungary, Germany and Austria, all of whom had challenged the Czech stance.

After several rounds of back-and-forth talks between individual leaders, the presidency managed to draw up a summit declaration tjat satisfied the demands of all four states.

National leaders broke into applause when the deal was finally announced, sources close to the negotiations said.

The EU is keen to bring the Lisbon Treaty into force by the end of the year. All but one of the EU's 27 member states have already ratified the treaty.

The last obstacles are the Czech constitutional court, which is expected to rule Tuesday on a challenge to the treaty, and Klaus, who says that the treaty's Charter of Fundamental Rights could allow Germans expelled from his country in 1945 to reclaim their homes.

Ahead of the summit, Klaus said that he would only sign the treaty, which the Czech Parliament has already approved, if the EU let his country opt out of the treaty's charter.

   That, in turn, sparked a Slovak demand for an explicit EU promise that the charter could not be used to challenge the expulsions.

Hungary, Germany and Austria reacted with outrage, seeing the Slovak demand as a gratuitous insult to the expellees.

'When we offered the Czechs something they could accept, the Slovaks rejected it. When we offered something the Slovaks could live with, the Hungarians rejected it,' one diplomat close to the talks told the German Press Agency dpa.

The final compromise declaration satisfied Slovak demands without antagonizing the country's neighbours, diplomats said.

Klaus had sent one of his top staff members to the summit, giving rise to hopes that he will quickly sign the treaty if the court allows him to.

EU leaders are expected to reconvene for a special summit in the following weeks to decide the crucial appointments.

Under EU rules, an opt-out from a treaty has to be formally ratified by all member states. Ahead of Thursday's meeting, diplomats said that the likeliest way to do so would be to formalize the Czech opt-out the next time the EU accepts a new member.