Cyprus-Forum.com

[YFred]

The main obstacle for peace in Cyprus has finally been removed. The Czech Republic has been given the exemtion they wanted from EU’s planned bill of rights. No reason why it can't be offered to the TCs too.

EU Nears Passage of Treaty After Czechs Win Exemption (Update2) Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By James G. Neuger and Peter Laca

Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- European Union leaders removed one of the last obstacles to a new treaty designed to strengthen the bloc’s global clout, granting the Czech Republic an exemption from the EU’s planned bill of rights.

The concession was demanded by Czech President Vaclav Klaus as the price for abandoning his one-man campaign to sabotage the treaty, which will create the post of permanent EU president.

“This new treaty reminds me of a marathon, a marathon with hurdles,” European Commission President Jose Barroso told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels. “Tonight we have removed the last political hurdle.”

Efforts to get the new treaty past the final roadblock coincided with stepped-up lobbying for the post of president, with new candidates coming forward to challenge former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The next step on the eight-year path toward the overhaul of the EU’s decision-making machinery is a ruling due next week by the Czech supreme court, which has already backed the treaty once.

“Let me assure you that, provided that the constitutional court rules on Nov. 3 that the Lisbon Treaty is in line with the constitution, there will be nothing standing in the way of completing the ratification,” Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said. Klaus “does not have a problem” with the deal, he added.

Klaus Concern

Klaus, a self-styled EU dissident, had balked at signing the ratification documents until winning assurances that the new rulebook wouldn’t open the floodgates to property claims by ethnic Germans -- or their descendants -- who were expelled after World War II.

“There will be probably no one in Europe to understand him” if he reneges on the agreement, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

The breakthrough shifts attention to the jockeying for the posts of EU president and foreign-policy chief. The powers of the president, with a 2 ½ year-term renewable once, remain to be fleshed out and debate has centered on whether the EU leaders who will make the choice want a globally recognized name like Blair or a lesser-known consensus-seeker.

Blair, the highest-profile candidate for the top job, hit fresh headwinds at the summit when he failed to win the backing of his EU socialist allies and a growing number of leaders questioned his candidacy.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the EU’s second-smallest state after Malta, stepped up his effort to derail Blair, saying the U.K. leader from 1997 to 2007 “doesn’t strictly adhere to community principles.”

Dogged by Iraq

Blair, 56, is dogged by his backing for George W. Bush in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, a war that aroused Europe-wide public opposition.

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown sought to defuse the controversy over Iraq, pitching his predecessor as an “excellent candidate” who would advance the EU’s interests on the economy, trade and climate change.

“What are the issues we in Europe are going to be discussing these next few years?” Brown told reporters in Brussels. “It’s not Iraq.”

A meeting of European socialists failed to unite behind Blair. Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told reporters that “I’d like there to be more candidates.”

Zapatero’s Call

Zapatero, who pulled Spain’s forces from Iraq in one of his first acts after his 2004 election, appealed for “a pro- European president, a president with a great European commitment.”

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite recalled “very tough times” negotiating the EU budget with Blair in 2005, though she has “impressive memories” of him. She also called former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, 71, a viable candidate.

Also stepping forward was former Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, the EU’s ambassador to the U.S. Bruton, 62, announced his bid in a letter to European governments, the Irish Times reported, citing the letter.

Former Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen, 68, touted by Finland’s current government, wrote in the Financial Times that the president’s principal job is “to listen to the member governments and deal with possible problems as a troubleshooter.”

[YFred]

I am now begining to like the european way of doing things. All things to man kind.

[Hermes]

Poor Fred. A seriously deluded man clutching at straws. Unfortunately for him the ROC is in the EU and is not about to seek an exemption from EU laws on the property rights of its citizens. Especially as the EU courts have established legal precedents on this issue.

Fred is not only seriously deluded, he doesn't even understand how the EU works. These exemptions do not amount to anything. They do not allow EU countries to evade their legal duty to treat the charter as binding. Nor does it prevent the European Court of Justice, wielding the charter, from reaching judgments that affect directly on the European states or their citizens. These kinds of guarantees will sweeten the deal for President Klaus of the Czech Republic but the treaty will be binding, and member nations will not be able to escape it in the courts.

Exemptions are a dead end for the T/Cs. You cannot join the EU and not be bound by its laws. That is just a typically Turkish delusion. If you want to join the EU you have to obey the rules. So please, the EU is not about to legalise the theft of property in Cyprus. It just ain't going to happen.

[Me Ed]

YFred your warped logic is in action again ...

Gemany invaded Czechoslovakia on the pretext to protect the ethnic German minority, which is the same reason used by Turkey to justify it's invasion of the Republic of Cyprus.

This is where the similarity with the Cyprus problem ends.

After WWII the Czechoslovation expelled the ethic Germans back to their motherland.

Hypothetically, if in future the ethnic Turks are expelled back to their motherland Turkey (of course the likelyhood of this happening is zero - purely hypothetical) and Turkey joins the EU, this exemption will protect the RoC from TCs wanting to return and claiming their propertt rights.

[Me Ed]

YFred your warped logic is in action again ...

Gemany invaded Czechoslovakia on the pretext to protect the ethnic German minority, which is the same reason used by Turkey to justify it's invasion of the Republic of Cyprus.

This is where the similarity with the Cyprus problem ends.

After WWII the Czechs expelled the ethic Germans back to their motherland.

Hypothetically, if in future the ethnic Turks are expelled back to their motherland Turkey (of course the likelyhood of this happening is zero - purely hypothetical) and Turkey joins the EU, this exemption will protect the RoC from TCs wanting to return and claiming their property rights.

[YFred]

The Properties the Czechs were worried about are not the ones Germany invaded for but the Germans they kicked out of their property after WW2, and so are the Poles. The poles must be dancing the night away. How will this decision effect the 160 thousand court cases that you intended to pursue. Who is being delusional here.

The talks between now and the end of this year will take an interesting turn that’s for sure. If Muhtar X does not get off his maximalist demands we are going on a hell of a ride, belt up and hang on to your seats boys and girls. There are some rapids ahead, where is the sailor boy when you need him where he may be useful.

[YFred]

YFred your warped logic is in action again ...

Gemany invaded Czechoslovakia on the pretext to protect the ethnic German minority, which is the same reason used by Turkey to justify it's invasion of the Republic of Cyprus.

This is where the similarity with the Cyprus problem ends.

After WWII the Czechs expelled the ethic Germans back to their motherland.

Hypothetically, if in future the ethnic Turks are expelled back to their motherland Turkey (of course the likelyhood of this happening is zero - purely hypothetical) and Turkey joins the EU, this exemption will protect the RoC from TCs wanting to return and claiming their property rights.

Mr Ed, I would get your Virtual Digital Stuttering seen to by a real medical personage.

[Gregory]

YFred your warped logic is in action again ...

Gemany invaded Czechoslovakia on the pretext to protect the ethnic German minority, which is the same reason used by Turkey to justify it's invasion of the Republic of Cyprus.

This is where the similarity with the Cyprus problem ends.

After WWII the Czechs expelled the ethic Germans back to their motherland.

Hypothetically, if in future the ethnic Turks are expelled back to their motherland Turkey (of course the likelyhood of this happening is zero - purely hypothetical) and Turkey joins the EU, this exemption will protect the RoC from TCs wanting to return and claiming their property rights.

Mr Ed, I would get your Virtual Digital Stuttering seen to by a real medical personage.

19.14 posts per day.....not too much going on in your life these days?

[Get Real!]

Y-Fronts, I can assume you’ve read that article but I can’t assume you’ve understood it…

[YFred]

Y-Fronts, I can assume you’ve read that article but I can’t assume you’ve understood it…

The article does not explain in detail, what the decision was for. The point is they have won an exemption from the German claims for the german properties they lost after WW2.
Which bit do you find unable to understand?
EU makes the rules up as they go along. Do you need any more pointers?