Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools
Sections
You are here: Home Breaking news Slovakia no longer insists on Lisbon Treaty opt-out: report

Slovakia no longer insists on Lisbon Treaty opt-out: report

28 October 2009, 19:57 CET
— filed under: , , ,

(BRATISLAVA) - Slovakia no longer wants an opt-out from the European Union's reforming Lisbon Treaty similar to that demanded by the Czech Republic, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Wednesday.

The CTK news agency quoted Fico as saying an opt-out similar to that asked by Czech President Vaclav Klaus as a condition for ratifying the text might restrict Slovak citizens' rights guaranteed by the treaty.

"We will not sacrifice social rights for people in Slovakia," Fico said a day before a crucial EU Council meeting, which will deal with the opt-out.

Klaus is the last EU leader holding out on signing the treaty designed to streamline governance in the 27-nation bloc and which must be ratified by all member states to take effect.

He said he wanted the opt-out to make sure that ethnic Germans forced out of former Czechoslovakia after World War II on the basis of presidential decrees cannot claim their property back.

But the postwar decrees also affected more than 30,000 ethnic Hungarians, who were expelled from the territory of today's Slovakia after the war.

Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak said earlier this month that Slovakia would not back an opt-out from the treaty for the Czech Republic unless it covers Slovaks too.

Czechoslovakia split amicably into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

Text and Picture Copyright 2009 AFP. All other Copyright 2009 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.




Document Actions
Newsletters

EUbusiness Week 476
With 41.7m Europeans now using social networking sites, the 1995 Data Protection Directive is in urgent need of a rewrite.

The week's EU diary
This week Euro-MPs in plenary vote on the EU-US interim agreement on transfer of banking data in the interests of fighting terrorism; and on whether to approve or reject the Commission team as a whole. The European Council meets to discuss economic strategy, climate change and Haiti.

Week Ahead

Past newsletters
Search EU texts
Caselex Law

Caselex Law

Caselex is the premium information service for European case law

Free trial for EUbusiness readers
PARTNERS
Partnership
Publish your organisation's press releases, events, job vacancies, product information etc to EUbusiness.com's worldwide audience.
Membership
Partners