President Klaus may NOT chair June EU Council

Contrary to an earlier post on this blog quoting a report in EurActiv, it now appears from an article linked here, titled 'The Meaning of "Common Good" in the EU' that there is doubt over who will chair the EU's June summit meeting. I quote: On April 9^th, the euroskeptic Czech President, Vaclav Klaus appointed Jan Fisher, former head of the Czech Statistical Office and assigned him to form a new cabinet. The interim government is expected to come into office by May 9^th. However, it is still not accurate who is going to preside over the EU Council summit in June in Brussels, Klaus or Fisher.

Up until now, Brussels’ attitude towards the political turbulence in the Czech Republic has not been destructive; on the contrary, top EU officials expressed their confidence in the Czech Presidency and its capability to cope with the rotating of the EU until the end of June. However, besides encouraging the Czechs, both the EU Commission President Barroso and the EU Parliament President Pottering “urged” the government not to sacrifice the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty to the current domestic political tensions. In this context, Barroso reminded both the Czech government and the opposition of their responsibility to other EU countries to ratify the Treaty. More interestingly, Pottering reacted as, “I can not imagine that 10 million Czechs will turn against (the other) 490 million EU citizens.”

Indeed, the above quoted statement reveals the contradiction of the European Union in itself. Regarding the Lisbon Treaty case, the central institutions of the Union and especially the big member states have preferred to put pressure on the rejecting countries to carry on the ratification process.....

Czech Crisis round-up from China

A review of the present situation from Xinhua is linked here. It begins: PRAGUE, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Czech coalition government may not be strong enough to keep in power until the end of the Czech EU presidency in June, Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said Tuesday.

"We are not strong enough to push this through," said Vondra in a radio interview.

Vondra had called for the continued ruling of the outgoing government, comprising the Civic Democrats (ODS), Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Greens, until the end of the EU presidency on June 30.

But the coalition ruling seemed unlikely to continue as Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Chairman of the Czech opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) Jiri Paroubek "say a clear 'no' to it," he said.

The anticipated interim government is an instrument or a "cableway" to bring the country quickly to early elections, and no other option is actually possible, he said.

Leaders of the four democratic parties in parliament on Sunday agreed to form an interim government headed by Jan Fischer, chairman of the Czech Statistical Office (CSU).

On Monday, the senior ruling ODS and the senior opposition CSSD confirmed their support for the agreement, but the junior ruling KDU-CSL and Greens said they were pulling out of it. In response, the ODS said the agreement is still valid.

NATO, intra- EU military intrusions and the Czech crisis.

From the low farce of the G20 meeting in London we must turn our attention today to the NATO Strasbourg meeting and other matters of reality and substance. France has re-joined the integrated Nato military command a plan that has clearly been under consideration for some considerable time as the changeover of French trainee fighter pilots to English at the start of the year clearly demonstrates. Will this strengthen Nato or the EU as the main European defence force - I fear the latter. The Pentagon must see a combined EU defence force as a military convenience and a strategic desirability. Hence the danger of the apparent inconsequence of the loss of European democracy! Which brings us to the sudden release of agreements covering armed military units deployed in other EU states and the crisis in the Czech Republic (presently holding the rotating EU Presidency and the key to the EU Lisbon Treaty, lest we forget) please read all my posts of yesterday,particularly the one linked here, for background and other links. Why did President Sarkozy make mention of the Renault factory in the Czech Republic in his car manufacturers bail-out plan for France (read here and here)? Given the hysteria sweeping the corridors of power in the EU and the barely hidden plans to replace the elected representatives with a government of appointees in the Czech Republic, long enough presumably to ratify the Lisbon Treaty and to pass the military agreements which will permit (possibly retroactively) the exertion of military muscle, could the answer perhaps be that public opinion in the nations that may be called upon to supply such military muscle has to be turned against the Czechs? Impossible? Then this sudden announcement reported from the South Devon Herald Express would have to be pure co-incidence:

AVX staff in Paignton received 90 days' notice on Monday, with the American company opting to decamp its manufacturing interests to the Czech Republic where labour costs are cheaper.

Union representatives had thought they were going to discuss wage increases when called in by bosses, so the bad news was a major shock.

Surely European history is not about to be repeated and the Czech people sacrificed in the name of a false peace on the altar of advancing totalitarianism - if so the hypocrites who signed this letter to The Times this week claiming the EU as a bringer of peace and this broadcast statement by Martin Schulz, linked here will be more quickly exposed than ever seemed possible

What can be done? The Irish now hold the key! Will they actually sign the military agreements, even with the extensive opt outs they have obtained, surely these are unacceptable assaults on their much valued neutrality? If they do nothing now and with their credit rating already reduced this week the pressure to go along with such ploys must be excruciating, if they let the EU have their way then surely we are all 500 million of us doomed for Lisbon to be so desired by those in such power it must hold many more as yet unseen horrors. Ireland's leaders must step up now and clearly state that the second referendum will not proceed. A golden opportunity has been presented by Liberal MEP Andrew Duff, who was one of three charged with including the Irish guarantees in the Croatian Accession Treaty who has declared such a move as legally impossible, read here. Come On Leaders of Ireland the Democrats of Europe now depend upon YOU!! (Update 0905 GMT. Since posting the above I have come across an Oped in the Wall Street Journal, linked here, by the former Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topalanek, which is worth reading in full, if that is not possible then this quote is noteworthy: I have personally experienced what the promises "voluntary membership," "fraternal help," and a "temporary stay" of the Warsaw Pact troops meant: forced dictatorship, violent occupation, and unlimited intimidation. From my perspective, the importance of U.S. input in NATO does not lie so much in the force of the first nuclear superpower, but rather in the ethos of supranational responsibility for democracy with which the U.S. soldiers disembarked in Normandy, or dropped food on West Berlin for its inhabitants. Hear, hear indeed but let us not forget Canada and Norway too, other democracies still as yet beyond the manipulations of the increasingly grotesque EU!)