CANDIDATE STATES: The Czech Republic's EU aspirations have been helped by a new report, writes Denis Staunton, in Prague
Like other candidate countries, the Czech Republic views this month's referendum on Nice as a potential hurdle on its path to EU membership. But there was quiet satisfaction in Prague this week that a different obstacle to the country's European ambitions appeared to have been removed.
The President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, received on Monday an expert report concluding that the so-called Benes Decrees should not prevent the Czech Republic from joining the EU.
The decrees, issued by Czechoslovakia's President Eduard Benes between 1940 and 1945, renewed the constitutional order of the Czechoslovak Republic which was disturbed by the Munich Agreement of 1938. Most of the decrees were issued while Mr Benes was in exile in London but the most controversial came at the end of the war and concerned the German minority in Czechoslovakia.
More than 2.5 million Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia at the end of the war and many thousands died. Tens of thousands of Hungarians were also expelled. Under the decrees, the expelled Germans and Hungarians were not entitled to any compensation for property they were forced to abandon. Most controversially, those who committed crimes against Germans, which were numerous and horrifying, were given an amnesty.
Germany has long protested against the Czech Republic's refusal to revoke the Benes decrees but Austria's right-wing government has gone further, suggesting that the decrees could be a bar to the Czechs joining the EU.
In this week's report, the German human rights expert, Dr Jochen Frohwein, says that the decrees are not an impediment to membership of the EU. But he calls on Prague to issue a declaration regretting the consequences of the amnesty for crimes against Germans at the end of the war.
Austria wants to negotiate such a declaration before the Czech Republic is admitted to the EU but the Czech Foreign Minister, Mr Cyril Svoboda, this week poured cold water on the idea.
"We can talk about these questions but we cannot negotiate. The Czech Republic is a sovereign state. We don't do anything under pressure from outside," he said.
Mr Jan Machacek, a political commentator on Prague's Mlada Fronta newspaper, says that any move to revoke the decrees would be unpopular.
He points out that, apart from the economic distortion involved in offering restitution of property to Sudeten Germans, the post war settlement was approved by France, Britain and the United States.
"This is not only our responsibility. It is shared by the great powers," he said.
Mr Machacek believes that most Czechs will view the EU report on the Benes Decrees as a licence to proceed with enlargement negotiations without changing the law.
"The general attitude is that one great obstacle is out of the way. The Irish referendum is the next one, which is more serious," he said.
Mr Machacek acknowledges that, even if Ireland ratifies the Nice Treaty, other EU member-states could still create problems for enlargement. He warns that any delay in the process would have serious consequences.
"It would create a lot of political problems and feed anti-EU feeling. It's already been delayed for a long time and it's very important that it should happen now," he said.