Word: czechs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Will he sign it or will he spike it? That's the question lingering in Europe's capitals as Czech President Vaclav Klaus holds the key to the European Union's future...
...Czech Republic is one of four E.U. countries - out of 27 - that are yet to finish ratifying a treaty that would allow the enlarged bloc to reform its institutions. The goal of the Lisbon Treaty, which the E.U. has been working on since its failed attempt to pass a constitution in 2005, is to boost the E.U.'s influence on the world stage by making it more effective. (Read "Czech Government's Collapse Hits...
...Czech government first submitted the treaty for ratification in parliament in January 2008, but its opponents, encouraged by euroskeptic Klaus, managed to put the painstakingly negotiated accord on the back burner for over a year. Finally, the Czech Senate was the last parliamentary chamber in the E.U. to approve the treaty on May 6, passing the hot potato onto the president, whose signature is required for ratification. Klaus, 67, opposes the treaty as a boon to the E.U.'s bigger members and a threat to his country's sovereignty, and he has since kept Europe on tenterhooks as it waits...
...into effect.) "The Lisbon Treaty is dead for the moment," Klaus said after the Senate vote. "Therefore, my decision on its ratification is not on the agenda for the time being." The president's followers in the Senate also plan to challenge the treaty in the Constitutional Court, the Czech Republic's highest court, and Klaus has said he won't make up his mind before the verdict...
...took a nosedive - compounded by a quick doubling of wages in the east following reunification later that same year. "There was a revaluation by a factor of eight. Which industry anywhere could swallow that?" Haimann asks, pointing out that some of Germany's eastern neighbors, including Poland and the Czech Republic, managed to hang on to many more jobs because they kept their currency cheap...