Lisbon Treaty Ratified with Czech Signing

(Thumbnail image: TimesOnline)

“President Klaus didn't agree but he signed, and the Lisbon Treaty was finally ratified, ending eight years of bitter argument over how the EU would reform itself." (BBC)

The Lisbon Treaty is intended to strengthen the European Union. The treaty will create new political positions such as a full-time EU president and a foreign minister.

We are looking at perspectives from Eux.TV, ITN, Sky News, The BBC, and Britain's Channel 4 News to see how the Czech Republic and Britain are reacting to this development.

President Klaus’s decision to sign the treaty came after Czech courts ruled that the treaty does not violate the Czech constitution. Eux.TV recorded an announcement he made after signing the treaty, in which he states that he disapproves of the treaty because it will take away power from the Czech government.

“Above all I cannot agree with its content, because by Lisbon Treaty validation in spite of the political opinion of the Constitutional Court the Czech Republic will lose its sovereignty. This change today and in the future legitimates the part of our public which is not careless to our national and state existence, and which doesn’t want to reconcile with it.”

Despite President Klaus’s reluctant support of the agreement, many Europeans believe that the Lisbon Treaty will help improve the EU’s decision-making processes and give it more influence internationally. ITN talks to their Europe Minister Chris Bryant about the positive effects of the treaty.

“Europe, I believe, will be able to be far more effective on a global stage, and far more efficient in the way it runs its business. It will also mean the end of a decade of navel gazing and the European Union now able to look forward to getting onto the issues that really matter to people like climate change.”

But Britain’s conservative party also disagrees with the Lisbon Treaty. In 2007, party leader David Cameron gave what he called an “iron-clad” promise to introduce a referendum to stop the Lisbon Treaty. But now that all 27 EU States have signed it, British conservative leaders say that a referendum is no longer possible. BBC Daily Politics talks to Robert Oulds, director of The Bruges Group, about why conservatives pushed so hard for a referendum.

“Well the alternative is is that he would be accepting the changed European Union with an EU foreign minister, with Tony Blair, possibly, as its president, with more EU control over asylum and immigration. That’s the alternative, because that’s what Lisbon will do.  It will fundamentally change our relationship with the European Union.  It will go even closer in.  We’ll be more controlled by Brussels, and to not have a referendum on Lisbon will mean he’s accepting that.”

Britain's Channel 4 News talks to British Conservative Philip Davies, who says that the party should create a new referendum in response to the Lisbon Treaty becoming European Law.

“I think he would be mistaken not to offer a referendum on our relationship with the EU. We haven’t had one since 1975.  If you’re under 54 years old you’ve never had your chance to have your say, and the people want to have a say on our relationship with the EU, and I think it would be a mistake not to give them that. I will support David Cameron in bringing powers back from Brussels back to Westminster, but I think he would best achieve that through having a referendum on what he proposes.”  

So what effects do you think the Lisbon Treaty will have on the European Union?