CHAIRMAN’s MESSAGE
Europe’s most powerful man?
The Irish referendum on the Lisbon treaty has yielded a positive outcome for the European Union. The Irish voters have accepted the treaty with substantial majority, which of course has given a necessary impetus to finalize the ratification process in the other member states. Germany’s president signed the ratified treaty in September after the ruling of the German Constitutional court and shortly after the Irish referendum, Poland’s president followed his German counterpart. The only remaining obstacle now is Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, who can be characterised as “Euro-sceptic”, to say the least. The Lisbon treaty passed both chambers of the Czech Parliament in February and May 2009 and is now awaiting Klaus’ signature to be ratified. The Euro-sceptic President said at that point that he would not give his signature until after the referendum in Ireland.
Signals from the Prague Castle are more anticipated, especially after the positive outcome in Ireland and David Cameron’s remark in an interview with the Financial Times, that should the Conservative Party win the elections before the Lisbon treaty enters into force, he would call for a referendum on the treaty in the UK.
So far the signals have been rather bleak for Brussels. It looks like Klaus is using all tricks in the book to prevent the treaty’s implementation and thus managing to hold the whole Europe in suspense. He has the life of the treaty in his hands and he knows it. If David Cameron gets the opportunity to have a referendum on the treaty in the UK, it is unlikely for the UK voters to act in favour of Brussels. Should that happen, the third attempt for EU reforms will have failed and the future of the union will be at risk. Václav Klaus knows this very well, he also knows that his signature has de facto made him EU’s most powerful man. This dilemma crystallizes the problems of the EU.
It seems to me that in the EU, everyone wants something and has his own agenda, but the only player without a strong voice and any powers to act are the people itself.