MEPs criticise Klaus for alleged vanity, call for impeachment

German MEP Jo Leinen today called for launching the impeachment process of president Klaus if he did not sign the Lisbon treaty even if the Czech constitutional court did not find any shortcomings in it.

Austrian MEP Othmar Karas criticised Klaus for his "personal vanity and playing tactically" during the ratification of the Lisbon treaty.

Eurosceptical Klaus is waiting for the Constitutional Court's decision whether the Lisbon treaty is in compliance with the constitutional order, on the basis of a new complaint lodged by a group of right-wing senators.

Last Friday Klaus said he wants an opt-out for Czechs from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, a part of the Lisbon treaty, as a condition for his possible signing the treaty aince he he is afraid that the Charter might enable German deportees to claim their former property on Czech soil, confiscated from them after World War Two on the basis of the Benes decrees.

Leinen recalled that the EU Charter of Human Rights, which Klaus criticised, does not apply to the post-war Benes decrees.

"If he (Klaus) refused to sign the Lisbon treaty after the positive decision of the Czech Constitutional Court, other constitutional institutions should launch impeachment of him," Leinen, member of the European Socialists, said.

The Czech Republic is the last EU member state not to have ratified the Lisbon treaty to reform the EU institutions.

Klaus's latest demand in relation to the Lisbon treaty is just another step of his to arbitrarily violate the Lisbon ratification process, Leinen said.

He added that such demands are completely useless since the Charter of Human Rights applies only to EU laws and similar acts.

The EU has no powers to decide in property disputes between individual member states. Moreover, the Charter cannot be applied retroactively, Leinen noted.

The problems ensuing from the Benes decrees were solved in Czech-German bilateral agreements and the EU-Czech accession treaties, recalled Leinen, Klaus's long-term opponent.

In April 2005 Leinen, along with then EP deputy head Alejo Vidal-Quadras criticised Klaus's stance on the European constitution, which was in the end rejected in referenda in France and the Netherlands and replaced by the Lisbon treaty.

Not only Klaus, but also Czech MEPs for the Civic Democrats (ODS) then raised objections to the MEPs' sharp words.

Autor: ČTK
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