STAYING OUTSIDE:THE FRACTIOUS Czech government is divided over prime minister Petr Necas's decision not to join the European Union's new pact on fiscal discipline, a document that Eurosceptic president Vaclav Klaus strongly dislikes.
The Czech Republic joined Britain on the sidelines of a deal agreed by the EU’s other 25 members this week in Brussels after overcoming objections from other central European states – most notably Poland – that they would be excluded from summits involving the 17 eurozone states.
While in Brussels Mr Necas said he had to express his “very serious reservations” over the pact.
“It’s very difficult for a country like the Czech Republic to sign this kind of document and to potentially contribute to loans to the International Monetary Fund for eurozone states, when its participation in negotiations will be purely symbolic . . . If they want us to sign up to something, if they want us to pay, we must have full rights at the negotiating table.”
Yesterday Mr Necas said lack of clarity about how his country would ratify the deal, and over the timing of Prague’s adoption of the euro, were also factors in his decision.
“I consider it very valuable that the treaty was changed in a way that it’s possible to join it any time in the future,” Mr Necas added.
His Civic Democratic Party and a coalition partner called Public Affairs want to put the fiscal compact to a referendum.
The influential TOP09 party, which includes foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg and finance minister Miroslav Kalousek, support the pact, however, and favours ratification in parliament over a referendum.
Mr Schwarzenberg said yesterday that Mr Necas’s position on the deal was “absolutely unclear” to other EU nations, and his rejection of it “hurt state interests”.
Discussing his support for the pact recently, Mr Schwarzenberg said he “can’t be a member of a government that would drive the Czech Republic outside the main current of European integration . . .
“We’re not an island between Europe and America. With 80 per cent of our exports heading to the EU, we’re totally economically dependent on it.”
President Klaus opposes a referendum and says the government should decide on whether to join the pact.
He has called signing the pact “obviously unwise”, however, and opposes any deal to transfer powers from sovereign states to EU institutions. He is due to step down early next year.
