Czech Premier Denies French Warning on E.U. Enlargement
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Prague — The Czech deputy premier, Alexandr Vondra, rejected as “kind of a lie” a French warning that European Union enlargement will stall unless a new governing treaty comes into effect.
“It simply is not true — the enlargement can go ahead even without the treaty,” Mr. Vondra said, speaking in English in an interview in Prague yesterday. “It’s kind of a lie. It’s not impossible. It’s about the political will.”
The Czechs “have this political will” and will pursue expansion to southern and southeastern Europe as one of the main topics when they hold the six-month E.U. presidency from January, Mr.Vondra, 46, who is in charge of European affairs, said.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, whose country took over the presidency this month, has cast doubt on enlargement past the current 27 countries without the streamlined decision-making system in the new treaty, indicating the entry of Croatia and other countries in the western Balkans may be put back.
“I say to my European partners that if they want to enlarge Europe, they have to have the courage to endow it with institutions that make it possible,” Mr. Sarkozy told a meeting of political supporters in Paris on July 5. “If they don’t have the courage to ratify European institutions, they have to know it will delay enlargement.”
The Lisbon Treaty, the latest update to the E.U.’s governing articles dating back to the 1950s, was scheduled to take effect in January, creating the post of full-time E.U. president and simplifying the legislative process.
Irish voters shattered that timetable by turning down the treaty, depriving it of the needed unanimous ratification by all 27 E.U. members. So far, 19 have ratified it in parliament and the process is under way in the remaining seven.
E.U. delays threaten to set back foreign investment and economic growth across the Balkans, a region still recovering from the civil wars of the 1990s. The first victim would be Croatia, which is seeking to join in 2010 or 2011. Neighboring Balkan countries and Turkey are vying to get in at a later date.
To allow for the E.U.’s further expansion, only the accession protocol must be “adjusted” for future members, Mr. Vondra said.