Europe News

Oct 27, 2009, 14:16 GMT

Klaus won't attend EU summit, to send representative

Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus does not plan to attend the European Union's summit at which his conditions for signing the EU's reform Lisbon Treaty are to be discussed. Instead of Klaus, the president's chief of staff, Jiri Weigl, is planning to be part of the Czech delegation during the two-day top- level EU meeting in Brussels that starts Thursday, presidential spokesman Martin Erva confirmed to the German Press Agency dpa. Klaus' signature is the last obstacle to the Lisbon Treaty coming to force. The Czech president, a firm treaty opponent, has demanded that the Czech Republic get an opt-out from a part of the pact, the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, before he ratifies it. Weigl has negotiated the exemption's wording on behalf of the president. Klaus has argued that the charter puts at risk Czech citizens' property rights, as it allows ethnic Germans expelled by the former Czechoslovakia after World War II to sue for their confiscated property in European courts. While Klaus views the EU treaty as a threat to the Czech Republic's sovereignty, its supporters consider it a key to boosting the 27-member bloc's standing in the world arena. The Czech Republic's delegation to EU summits is customarily headed by the premier and does not usually include representatives of the president. Klaus did chair several EU summits during the country's six-month rotating presidency of the EU that ended June 30.

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