Vondra: EC's halt of CASA proceedings is Czech diplomacy's success

Prague, Nov 24 (CTK) - Ten months of Czech intensive diplomatic negotiations are behind the EC's decision to halt the proceedings against the Czech Republic over its controversial purchase of the CASA military transport planes, which the EC announced Thursday, Czech Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra told the media.

If Prague had failed to achieve the halt, it might be threatened with paying compensation worth billions of crowns, Vondra (Civic Democrats, ODS) said.

Brussels reproached Prague for not putting up a tender for the 132-million-euro order. The EC still has doubts in this respect, but it says it has halted the proceedings because the Czech Republic has changed its legislation concerning public orders.

Vondra said apart from him, the successful negotiations on Prague's behalf were conducted by his first deputy minister Jiri Sedivy and by Vaclav Balek, Czech permanent representative in the EU's political and security committee.

Their partner in the EU was the team of Michel Barnier, EU commissioner for internal market and services, who took a "very constructive and accommodating" approach, Vondra said.

The EC said in an official statement Thursday it still believes that the deal in 2009 was to be preceded by a European tender.

However, the relevant contract had been fulfilled meanwhile. Moreover, the Czech Republic has changed its legislation on placing public orders so that it includes the new European rules, which should apply to similar cases from now on, the EC said.

By no means can the EC's decision be understood as that everything was quite in order in the past, Vondra emphasised.

"The EC's reservations about the way the planes were acquired without a tender persist. By halting the proceedings, the EC appreciated the measures we've taken in our system of public orders placing," Vondra said.

The contract for the planes' purchase was signed in 2009 under the government of Mirek Topolanek (ODS), one day before then deputy defence minister Martin Bartak became defence minister.

Bartak is suspected of corruption accompanying expensive military orders.

According to media and experts, the acquisition of the CASA planes was suspicious and the contract was probably overpriced.

Moreover, the planes, supplied to the Czech Republic in the meantime, suffer from serious technical defects and could not be deployed in missions.

Vondra said a couple of days ago if the producer did not remove the planes' defects to make them fully functioning in time, he would propose that the Czech government withdraw from the contract.

However, representatives of the Omnipol firm, the Czech intermediary that has supplied the planes, said only lawyers would profit from the Defence Ministry's possible decision to withdraw from the contract.