Outgoing Czech PM in treaty plea over Lisbon vote

OUTGOING CZECH prime minister Mirek Topolanek says he will “plead” with his largely Eurosceptic party to support the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty.

Mr Topolanek also said he believes the treaty will be ratified before his country’s presidency of the EU ends on June 30th.

Mr Topolanek’s government was ousted in a parliamentary confidence vote last week and he was forced to resign, potentially undermining Prague’s leadership of the EU during the remainder of its presidency, and casting doubt on the fate of the embattled Lisbon Treaty.

The lower house of the Czech parliament has approved the document. But it is due to be debated next month in the upper house, where Eurosceptic members of Mr Topolanek’s Civic Democrats (ODS) are expected to give it a rough ride, and may vote it down.

The treaty must be passed by all 27 EU members to come into force and, while it still has to be formally ratified in Germany and Poland, it faces the biggest obstacles in Ireland and the Czech Republic, where ODS founder president Vaclav Klaus is a vehement opponent.

While the ODS government was in power, many natural allies of Mr Klaus towed Mr Topolanek’s more moderate line on Europe; now he and his cabinet have been ousted. However, analysts expect them to move closer to the president and his scathing criticism of the treaty.

“I will plead for the approval of the Lisbon Treaty, and try to cause only the smallest scars and slightest damage to the unity of the ODS,” said Mr Topolanek, adding that he believed it would be fully ratified by the Czech parliament before elections to the European Parliament on June 5th-6th.

Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg said he also thought parliament would ratify the treaty; that failure to do so would leave his country “absolutely isolated” in central Europe.

“For us, that would be an awful result. Ireland as an island at least has free access to the sea. We are fully surrounded by the EU. We would thus isolate ourselves within it,” he said.

In weekend talks, Mr Topolanek agreed with the leader of the centre-left opposition on the need for early elections, but not on when they should be held or who should run the country until then.