Word: czechs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Despite the vocal misgivings of its President, Vaclav Klaus, the Czech Republic became the last of 27 European Union member states to sign the Lisbon Treaty, removing the final hurdle for its passage. The charter, intended to consolidate and strengthen the E.U.'s governance, calls for Europe's first full-time President, a new foreign policy chief and a new voting system. It could go into effect as early...
There were no trumpet blasts or jubilant ceremonies to mark the occasion. But the decision by Czech President Vaclav Klaus to sign an agreement he loathed on Tuesday was momentous, nonetheless. The long-delayed passage of the Lisbon Treaty - the Czech Republic had been the last holdout among the European Union's 27 members - marks the end of an almost decade-long saga to reform the cumbersome institution and give it a stronger, more unified voice on the global stage...
...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...