Lubomir Zaoralek, shadow foreign minister of the senior opposition CSSD, also told journalists that the Czech-U.S.
agreement was directed against the idea of the common European security and defense policy defined in the Lisbon treaty. The Czech government should not sign the agreement with the Americans because it does not have enough votes in the parliament to ratify it, Zaoralek said. Apart from the Social Democrats, junior opposition Communists (KSCM) and some deputies from the junior government Green Party (SZ) are against the stationing of the radar base on Czech soil. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are expected to sign the main Czech president surprised at Britain continuing ratification ...
Danes suspected of robbery to be taken to homeland from CzechRep ... Czech-U.S. agreement on radar in Prague on July 8. The Lisbon treaty aimed at reforming the EU has not yet taken effect either and its future is not quite clear. After it was rejected by the Irish in a referendum in mid-June most of the EU countries have decided to continue the ratification process. However, Czech President Vaclav Klaus said in his opinion there was no point in continuing the ratification. The Czech government is waiting for the Constitutional Court's position on the Lisbon treaty. At the initiative of the senior ruling Civic Democrats (ODS), the Senate, the upper house of the Czech parliament, has asked the court to assess whether the Lisbon treaty does not contradict the Czech constitution. The United States wants to build the radar base on the Brdy military grounds, 90 km southwest of Prague, and a base with ten interceptor missiles in Poland within its missile shield. The Central European elements are to protect the United States and a large part of the European continent against missiles that states like Iran or North Korea might launch. The Czech government has completed its talks with the United States on the main radar treaty, while the negotiations on the complementary SOFA treaty, dealing with U.S. soldiers' status on Czech territory still continue. So far it is not clear whether Rice will sign both treaties in the Czech Republic or only the main one. The radar treaties must be ratified by Czech parliament and signed by Klaus to take effect.
(Ceske Noviny)
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