Czech president hopes court will block Lisbon

CZECH REPUBLIC:CZECH PRESIDENT Vaclav Klaus said yesterday that he hoped the EU's Lisbon Treaty would be blocked by his country's constitutional court or upper house of parliament, while the main opposition party said that a missile defence deal with the United States due to be signed next week clashed with the spirit of Lisbon.

Mr Klaus believes the treaty would transfer too much power from governments to Brussels, a change he claims is advocated by new EU presidency-holder France.

"I expect a lot of pressure to create a European Union à la France," Mr Klaus told Czech newspaper Lidove Noviny.

"Our view is necessarily different, and therefore we must try to stop the European Union developing in the way that France and the rejected Lisbon Treaty propose. I hope that the constitutional court or Senate will not allow adoption of the Lisbon Treaty here."

The treaty was signed by the Czech government - which is led by the Civic Democrats (ODS), a party which Mr Klaus founded - despite opposition from many of its members.

The constitutional court is expected to rule on the treaty's legality in October, after which, if it it is found to be compatible with the Czech constitution, it would be voted upon in parliament.

With much of the opposition in favour of the treaty, it would probably pass in the lower house, but it would face a much tougher challenge in Senate, where Eurosceptic ODS members predominate. If both houses of parliament ratified the treaty, it would be left to President Klaus to sign it - but he has not said whether he would do that, and Czech legal experts are divided over whether he is obliged to do so.

All 27 EU members must ratify the treaty for it to come into force.

The opposition Social Democrats tried to throw another spanner in the works yesterday by claiming that Czech plans to host a US missile defence radar system would breach the treaty's chapters on collective EU security.

"The agreement is against the spirit of the Lisbon Treaty and continued integration in the security area," said shadow foreign minister Lubomir Zaoralek, of a deal which prime minister Mirek Topolanek hopes to sign in Prague next week with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.