Opt-out over EU treaty demanded by Czech President - Times Online »
Posted By gamahuche 2 months, 2 weeks ago in News
Mr Klaus said yesterday that he wanted the same opt-outs as Britain and Poland from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, a key section of the treaty, to stop the European Court of Justice from gaining extra powers over Czech judges.
Mr Klaus said that he feared the treaty would give thousands of German families expelled after the war the right to reclaim property in Sudetenland. EU officials said that he had not raised the issue during talks and that his explanation for refusing to sign was a delaying tactic to cause disruption to an institution that he detests.
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gamahuche
"I would rather be a square peg than fit in a pigeon hole" -
an essay which won me the "Lamb Essay Prize" at the Religious ...
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gamahuche2 months, 2 weeks ago
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Its seldom that I don't find time to give a story some kind of christening but the workload suddenly rocketed and the deadlines shrank so only now can I give a few minutes to this story, which I've been sitting on for a couple of days..
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I received these details in small verbal increments.
I'm happy to be identified as a 100% sceptic regarding anything to do with Vaclav Klaus - and that hasn't changed one iota. The man is a fraud from top to bottom and inside out. If he were honest about any aspect of his life there could be some wiggle room, but he isn't. Even his "lovers" are paid for doing nothing - he's a parody even of Berlusconi and that constitutes perhaps his greatest achievement.
When I first heard that he had put up a last-minute blocking action I was outraged.
When I heard that he was trying to avoid opening-up a can-of-worms regarding former Sudeten German property I actually agreed with him for the very first time that I remember. This was intimately connected to the rationale of the so-called "Peace for Our Time" Deal which the Czechs concurred with with the utmost reluctance 71 years ago and which the Nazis shredded in short order when they occupied Czechoslovakia.
I believe that Klaus has history on his side in this respect and that there is no possible justification for the return of the property to descendants of the former Sudetens.
But then there is Klaus's last-ditch timing - which makes it looks only as if he's cynically attempting to put a spanner in the works..
More palatable to most Czechs than this fake red-herring would be if Klaus took a stand based on the EU mandate that requires restaurants to throw away their uneaten goulash after just a few hours when everyone knows that its far tastier the next day..-
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hyperbola2 months, 2 weeks ago
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Interesting Gama - have you been overcome by your own tribal nationalism?
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Vaclav Havel disagrees with you. He offered to give Germans the chance to recover their Czech citizenship so they could recover their property.
Put another way, should anyone pay for the crimes committed by a state if he was not actively a participant in the actions of that state? How would you feel if the countries of the world concluded that zionist crimes against humanity justified the expropriation and expulsion of jews from their countries? Or that the many crimes against humanity committed by the American government over the last 50 years would justify the expropriation of American property all over the world?
Did you think the Germans were right to return to the original owners all the land and property that the esat German communists expropriated in 1949 (and thereafter)?
Always most difficult to "apply universal standards" when they touch one's own tribe.
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Radiofreeeuropa2 months, 2 weeks ago
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Confusing to me. I am picturing my predicament when GWB was our president, experience taught skepticism. He did manage to do some good in Africa with regards to funding health related aid...about the only positive thing I can think of...sometimes these folks do something right in spite of themselves.
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Striker1012 months, 2 weeks ago
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First I profess to knowing nothing about this except what appears in that article, so am certainly not asking to be considered an expert on the EU.
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However, what I do see is that the EU seeks to become yet another level of government similar to the UN. As all governments are structured use Force rather than be voluntary, all are anti-liberty. So I see Klaus and opt-out as most honorable.-
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hyperbola2 months, 2 weeks ago
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In this case the "opt-out" is an attempt by a government to deny private property rights on the basis of "tribal nationality".
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You see that as positive? How would you feel if the southern US states decided that only southerners could own property in those states?
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tehranchik2 months, 2 weeks ago
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This comment under the story made sense to me.
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"Every single 'Member State' should have an opt out clause, more importantly, every single Country should have had a Referendum in the first place, otherwise their bid for membership amounts to nothing more than a mere whim of one particular political party."
I know it's difficult to agree with someone you don't like - but it seems klaus is making a correct choice here. -
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