Word: czeched
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Although Klaus is fiercely opposed to the treaty, which aims to overhaul the E.U.'s decision-making procedures and establish a full-time President of the union, it's looking more likely that he will grudgingly sign it. He is bound by the Czech constitution to approve the document after the parliament endorsed it and he indicated in an interview last weekend that it was probably too late to derail the process. However, the deeply Euroskeptic President has devised a shrewd face-saving plan which allows him to still emerge a winner - at least in the public...
...demand has vexed European lawmakers who see it merely as a stalling tactic. The E.U. has no power over issues of private property and the Charter of Fundamental Rights cannot be applied retrospectively. But in parts of the Czech Republic, where the wounds of the war are still surprisingly fresh, the property-claim issue has deep resonance. In a national poll published in the Lidove Noviny newspaper on Oct. 16, 65% of Czechs said they backed Klaus' stance on the exemption...
...year-old ambulance driver, isn't afraid he'll lose his 1905 Art Nouveau villa to the descendants of the original German owners without the Lisbon Treaty exemption. But he still agrees with Klaus, who is seen by many as being more empathetic to the concerns of ordinary Czechs than his chief critic, former President Vaclav Havel. "Given my experience with Czech authorities, there could be a gap and one could lose anything," he says with a bitter laugh. (Read "The Next Step...
...dangerous." Author Jaroslav Rudis, who has written about the expelled Germans, also questioned Klaus' motives. "Every time I hear someone play this card I feel like the war has never ended," he tells TIME. "It's like it's from a different planet." Diplomats have griped that the Czech Republic's standing in the E.U. has hit a new low, with some talking about how the country could be denied a seat in the next European Commission. (Read "The Czech Republic's Klaus Defies E.U. on Treaty...
...demanding in exchange for his signature will likely be determined on Oct. 29-30 when E.U. leaders gather for a summit in Brussels. But even if he fails to wrangle any concessions from the E.U., Klaus has succeeded on one front: shoring up his support among the Czech people. "Vaclav Klaus is a great pragmatist," says Jan Kubacek, a political science lecturer at Charles University in Prague. "He neither enters lost battles nor wants to lose face...