LEAD: Czech president threatens to veto EU fiscal pact

Jan 12, 2012, 13:20 GMT

Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus has said that should the government decide to join a European Union fiscal union pact agreed at a summit last month he would refuse to sign it into law, according to the Lidove Noviny daily Thursday.

Klaus, whose mandate includes the signature of international treaties, made the comments in a letter he sent to Prime Minister Petr Necas, according to the newspaper.

The Czech Republic, along with Sweden and Hungary, said at the European Union summit last month they would have to consult their parliaments before signing the fiscal union pact, which calls for tighter budget policies. None of the three countries use the euro.

The debate over the fiscal union has caused a rift in the coalition government of Necas, who is seeking approval of the plan before a European Union summit on January 30.

Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has said his conservative TOP09 party would pull out of the coalition government if it fails to approve the fiscal union agreement, which would lead to the government's collapse.

'I will not sit in a government that takes the Czech Republic away from the path of European integration,' the newspaper quoted Schwarzenberg as saying.

At last month's summit, the United Kingdom vetoed the fiscal pact that would have required the European Union treaty to be changed, leading the other 26 European Union countries to agree on forming a new accord on fiscal rules.

President Klaus was later quoted as saying that Schwarzenberg's threat to withdraw from the coalition was unacceptable. 'You simply can't do politics this way,' Klaus said.

Klaus described the EU fiscal union agreement as a 'radical and revolutionary change,' adding that it was not necessarily the right solution for the debt crisis.

Klaus, know for his eurosceptic views, faced huge diplomatic pressure in 2009 before he finally agreed to sign the Lisbon Treaty, which overhauled the constitutional basis that binds the EU.

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