Václav Klaus visits Ireland

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Czech president says Cowen is in no hurry to solve the Lisbon issue

THE PRESIDENT of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus said yesterday he got a strong impression from Taoiseach Brian Cowen that Ireland was not in a hurry to find a solution to the Lisbon Treaty referendum defeat.

Speaking to Czech journalists after his meeting with Mr Cowen in Iveagh House in Dublin yesterday, Mr Klaus said his sense was the Government would not press for a quick solution and certainly not by next month's crucial EU summit meeting in Brussels.

Mr Klaus also defended his decision to hold a high-profile meeting with Libertas founder Declan Ganley during his three-day visit to Ireland, notwithstanding suggestions by the Department of Foreign Affairs that such a meeting breached protocol.

Mr Ganley, who is exploring the possibility of forming a pan-European political party, will host a dinner for Mr Klaus in the Shelbourne Hotel tonight with some 60 guests in attendance. Mr Klaus, viewed in Brussels as a Eurosceptic, said he considered himself a "dissident of the European Union" and said that Mr Ganley also had the same dissident status.

He was quoted on Czech TV as saying: "I cannot see any reason why I should not meet him because president Vaclav Havel [the poet and anti-communist campaigner] used to meet dissidents.

"So I will now meet an EU dissident and I regard myself as such as well," said Mr Klaus, who added the treaty was "dead" after the No vote in Ireland. Mr Cowen told Mr Klaus that Ireland was committed for finding a solution to the issue "within a reasonable timeframe".

Klaus: Lisbon will not enhance freedom

Czech President Václav Klaus has said the Lisbon Treaty will not enhance freedom and democracy and says he supports Declan Ganley and Libertas.

The President also denied he was breaching the protocol of a State visit by speaking out on the issue.

Klaus remarks are "inappropriate" - Minister

[orieleye]

Libertas.org

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Senior Spokesperson for Libertas, Caroline Simons, issued the following statement this evening in response to criticism of Czech President Vaclav Klaus from various sections of the Irish political establishment today:

"Today's spluttering, incoherent, bluster from the political establishment in this country is very revealing, in that it shows how angry they are that the central basis of their argument for a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has been so devastatingly undermined.

Ireland is not alone in Europe. President Klaus has shown himself to be a friend to the majority of Irish citizens who rejected the Lisbon Treaty. That he is the incoming President of the EU council is even more significant.

Dick Roche, Joe Costello, and Billy Timmins have spent today publicly regretting the fact that the Irish public were able to hear the views of a fellow democrat. I would hope that that would give them pause for thought.

The Irish people have eyes and ears. They can clearly see the truth of Ireland's position in Europe, and they can also see that the people they have elected would rather that they did not have all of the facts.

Combined with the reports yesterday that the Government may consider limiting access to the airwaves for its opponents, this paints an uncomfortable portrait of the view of democracy held by our leaders, - especially given Minister Roche's continued churlish and deceitful references to "free debate" in Ireland.

I congratulate President Klaus on his courage, dignity, and service, and we in Libertas will never for one moment regret that the Irish people are able to hear the stated positions of our European colleagues".

Czech president triggers EU row with Ireland

DUBLIN (AFP) — Czech President Vaclav Klaus branded Ireland's foreign minister a hypocrite Wednesday, in an unseemly row threatening to cast a cloud over EU efforts to resolve a crisis triggered by Irish voters.

Notoriously eurosceptic Klaus, whose country takes over the European Union's presidency in January, made the comments after Foreign Minister Micheal Martin accused him of "inappropriate" remarks at a meeting with Irish eurosceptics.

"Such hypocrisy I cannot accept," Klaus told Czech reporters in Dublin, quoted by the Czech Republic's CTK news agency. "If someone doesn't please me, I will say so to his face -- and not behind his back."

He added: "I really sense the huge problems of democracy disappearing in Europe, but when I see the reactions of the Irish foreign minister and some of the Irish press, I think it is even worse than I expected."

His remarks came shortly before he left Dublin at the end of a three-day state visit here, which had been going mostly smoothly until Klaus met the leader of eurosceptic group Libertas, Declan Ganley, on Tuesday evening.

Libertas was a key force behind Ireland's "no" vote in a June referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty, plunging the EU into limbo since all 27 member nations have to ratify it for it to come into force.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen is struggling to decide whether to hold a second referendum, but has promised to come up with proposals for how to proceed at a December EU summit.

But Klaus, who welcomed the Irish "no" vote in June, reiterated in Dublin that he was "afraid that freedom and democracy will not be enhanced by the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

"On the contrary," he said in a joint press conference Tuesday evening with Ganley, aired by state broadcaster RTE.

"In this respect I think we share the views with Mr. Ganley. I would say that the Czechs share the views of the citizens of Ireland and we followed with great interest the referendum," he said.

The Irish foreign ministry said the remarks were "an inappropriate intervention in the context of such a state visit, particularly at a time when the Irish government is engaged in discussions with our partners in the EU."

But Martin sought to downplay the significance of Klaus's remarks, saying: "He doesn't represent the views of the (Czech) government in terms of his articulation of his views on Europe."

Klaus's political influence is strong, but his powers are limited, and it might be difficult for him to veto the Lisbon Treaty if it is approved by the constitutional court and parliament.

In Prague, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said Klaus had a "legitimate" right to express his opinions, telling reporters: "I fully respect it, although my own opinion is slightly different."

Cowen refused to be drawn into the row, saying Klaus "has well-known views on various aspects of policy which he has consistently held.... I don't wish to add anything to what the minister for foreign affairs had to say."

The Lisbon Treaty, which was aimed at streamlining the EU's workings to take into account its mainly eastwards expansion, required the approval of all 27 EU member states.

But 53.4 percent of Irish voters rejected it in a June referendum, which plunged the EU into a still-unresolved crisis.

In other comments, Klaus compared Ganley to Soviet-era dissidents in his own country, who include his predecessor as Czech president, Vaclav Havel. "I think Mr. Ganley is a dissident, sort of dissident in the EU setting just now.

"We were quite happy in the communist era when west European politicians were coming to us and met our dissidents at the time. So I am meeting Mr. Ganley in the same style and the same way," he said.

[orieleye]

Mr Klaus feels Lisbon is pushing the EU in the wrong direction

"This state visit was planned long ago, and before the referendum on the Lisbon treaty had even taken place," the Czech head of state pointed out at a press conference in Dublin on Tuesday (11 November).

"Changes have been going on in the European Union, in radical shifts going from integration to unification, from inter-governmentalism to supranationalism," Vaclav Klaus said, adding that the Lisbon treaty was accelerating the shifts.

"We have the feeling - some of us - that it is not adding to positive development in Europe and that democracy and freedom are not to be enhanced by the ratification of the Lisbon treaty. To the contrary."

President Klaus said he had followed with great interest the referendums in Ireland in 2008 and in France and the Netherlands in 2005, all ending with the majority of the electorate rejecting new EU treaties.

"Because of our Communist past, we are extremely sensitive about the idea of freedom and democracy, perhaps even over sensitive," he admitted.

"We are part of Europe and have always been. We have no other chance than to participate in European integration ... What we are talking about is the internal development of the European Union. You can have different views on how to organise the Union and what competences move from Dublin or Prague to Brussels. That is the issue of the day."

Malcontents' dinner
The Irish government hosting the visit had made no secret of their discontent that Mr Klaus accepted an invitation to dine with the leaders of the Irish No campaign while he was in Ireland.

At the invitation of one of the No groups, Libertas leader Declan Ganley, some 80 people celebrated the referendum result at the fashionable Shelbourne Hotel in central Dublin. Among the guests were the leader of the French right-wing party Mouvement Pour La France, Philippe de Villiers, and Austrian independent MEP, Hans-Peter Martin.

President Klaus and Mr Ganley held a joint press conference in the Constitutional Room at the hotel, where the first constitution for a free Irish state was drafted in 1922. Some of the drafts written on an old-style typewriter can be studied in the room, with corrections of the texts showing how difficult drafting treaties was at the time.

The Czech president denied breaching protocol by meeting Mr Ganley and his campaigners during the official state visit.

"During two days with official representatives of the Irish government, no one mentioned this meeting. It is a creation of part of the media, seeing a problem," President Klaus said.

Mr Ganley added that French President Sarkozy had not been criticised for meeting No camp representatives when he visited Ireland earlier in the year.

Libertas speculation
Declan Ganley recently registered his group, Libertas, as a political party under Irish law, with speculation growing that he might run a list in the upcoming European Parliament elections in June 2009.

"Libertas is in active discussion with people in many countries sharing our views," the group's leader said.

"June 2009 might be an opportunity to give people the European referendum they have not had," he hinted, holding back however from offering further details.

Asked whether he would support such a pan-European political initiative, Vaclav Klaus said he would not join any such movement as president of his country.

"But if Mr Ganley wins the European elections I will be the first one to congratulate him."

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