President Václav Klaus, a leading opponent of the Lisbon Treaty, may ironically help complete the Czech parliament’s ratification of the document, thanks to his contribution to the collapse of Mirek Topolánek’s government. At least ODS Senator Jaroslav Kubera predicts such a scenario.
The fact that some of his party colleagues, including chairman of the ODS senators’ club, Jiří Stříteský, have changed their position on the treaty only supports this view. “They are going to vote for the treaty to spite the president,” Kubera told the daily E15 Wednesday.
“The Czech Republic has been damaged by the government collapse during the Czech EU presidency. We would top up the damage by refusing the ratification,” said ODS Senator Vítězslav Jonáš, who until recently belonged among treaty opponents. “I haven’t made a final decision yet. But I’m likely to support the treaty,” he said. The leader of the ODS Senate faction Stříteský has similar thoughts: “I was strictly against the Lisbon Treaty ratification, but I am now ready to change my opinion.”
A three-fifth majority of all attending senators is required to pass the EU reform treaty. If all of the 81 senators attend the voting, 49 of them would have to support it. “To pass a vote in the Senate, the consent of the three-fifth majority of all attending senators, not all senators, is required. That’s why I think the treaty will be ratified as some senators can leave the room or may not register for the vote and thus allow the ratification,” said Kubera. However, the main initiator of the constitutional complaint against the treaty said he would definitely not support the document and would again address the Constitutional Court.
The voting process in the upper house differs from that of the Chamber of Deputies, where the constitutional majority of all deputies, that is 120, was required to pass the treaty. “If the same condition was required in the Senate, the Lisbon Treaty wouldn’t be approved,” said Kubera. Apart from ČSSD and KDU-ČSL senators and non-party senators associated with the Open Democracy Club group, Civic Democrats Bedřich Moldon, Alexandr Vondra and Senate Chairman Přemysl Sobotka will support the Lisbon Treaty. If Jonáš and Stříteský vote for the treaty, only two more votes from the ODS club would be needed to ratify the treaty, on the condition that all of the 81 senators will attend the voting.
Another step toward ratifying the Lisbon Treaty has come from the EU Affairs Senate Committee, which submitted for approval the so-called amendments of parliamentary procedural rules. These regulations are to prevent the government from handing some of its powers onto Brussels without the consent of the parliament. Approving these regulations is one of the conditions of the upper house for the treaty ratification.
