Word: lisbon
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Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a fierce critic of all things related to the European Union, is the only thing standing between Europe's élite club and its mighty future. Until he signs the Lisbon Treaty - the Czech Republic is the last holdout among E.U. members - the E.U.'s grand reform plan remains in limbo. While politicians across the continent have spent weeks wringing their hands, trying to figure out how to compel Klaus to sign the document, the majority of Czechs are standing behind their leader. "I actually like him. He is an intelligent man who knows what...
...demanded that an exemption be added to the treaty to protect Czechs from potential property claims by the families of ethnic Germans who were expelled from the former Czechoslovakia after World War II. Klaus claims that the E.U. Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is part of the Lisbon Treaty, could become the basis for such property-restitution lawsuits. (See 10 things to do in Prague...
...snow-filled streets away, Milan Bezucha, a 53-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...
...make the damn thing work. The attention of political leaders has been directed inward, at just the time when tectonic movements outside Europe - the revival of political Islam, the economic rise of Asia - have both threatened and diminished Europe's centrality in world affairs. (Read: "Irish Ayes on Lisbon Treaty Have Europe Smiling...
...Euroskepticism seems as firmly rooted as it was when Margaret Thatcher gave her famous speech in Bruges 21 years ago. Cameron, who has taken his party out of the center-right European parliamentary grouping, annoying German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has promised a referendum on Lisbon if the treaty is not ratified by all E.U. members before the election. It probably will be; but even if Cameron resists pressure from his party to hold a vote, come what may, he is likely to try and renegotiate parts of the treaty, for example on justice and social...