Nedenfor er optrykt Tjekkiets præsident Vaclav Klaus’s 10 kritikpunkter af Forfatningen, MEP Jo
Leinens gensvar samt IND/DEM-gruppens juridiske vurdering af argumenterne
A NEW PRAGUE SPRING: WHY THE CZECHS ARE GETTING RIGHT
A legal assessment of two contradictory arguments
Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, had published ten arguments against the EU Constitution. These
arguments were eventually rebutted by MEP Jo Leinen (PES) in the Czech publication, Lidové Noviny (1 March 2005).
The Czech press gave great coverage to the debate; see the newspapaers Ceskenoviny , and Cesko in Czech.
IND/DEM group made a legal assessment of the arguments.
Point 1
Vaclav Klaus - President of the Czech Republic
The European Union will become a state and it will have all the basic features of a state. It will have its constitution, its
citizens, its territory, its external border, its currency, its President, its Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc. It will have its flag,
anthem, and state holiday.
Jo Leinen - President of the Constitutional Affairs Committee
The European Union will not become a state. A state has the right to give itself competences, whereas only Member
States can give competences to the Union and all of them have to agree on this. The Union cannot change its area of
competence itself. This is the main difference between a state and an association, unique in the world, which is being
called the European Union. Even today the EU has a flag, an anthem, a currency, and these symbols do not make it a
state.
IND/DEM legal assessment: The European Union is on its best way to become a State.
a) Regardless of the different views, the Constitutional Treaty itself clearly states by its own titles and by Article I-1 that
it "establishes a Constitution" and that "the Constitution" establishes the Union"(I-1.1). Therefore, the foundation of the
supranational EU is not a Treaty anymore, but a Constitution.
b) Although basically empowered by the Member State (I-1.1; I-6, I-11.1), Union law prevails over national law (I-6) and
only the EU Court can ultimately decide on the delimitation between Member States and Union competence (III-375.3);
c) The Union HAS the power to change, and thus enlarge its area of competence (flexibility clause I-18, the simplified
revision procedures IV-444 and IV-445, the socalled "passerelle" clause). This means a power to self-empowerment);
d) The EU is given many basic state features (see annex 1);
e) More and more areas are subject to the ordinary legislative procedure, hence moving unanimity to qualified majority
in the Council (see annex 3). Hereafter a Member State's veto falls and the competence is irretrievably given to a higher
level;
f) The Union has the power to submit any area (except defence) to the ordinary decision-making procedure and to
qualified majority vote in the Council (passerelle IV-444);
g) The objective is to create an ever closer Union, which provides for more European integration which in its final logic
inevitably leads to the transmission of more and more competence and to the creation of a European State.
Point 2
Vaclav Klaus - President of the Czech Republic
In this newly created state of a federalist type, current Member States will be simple regions or provinces.
Jo Leinen - President of the Constitutional Affairs Committee
No, they will not. The Constitution itself says that the Union respects the identity of its Member States including their
internal structure, political and constitutional systems, and so on. The Union cannot change the internal structure of
individual countries and the Constitution will change nothing to that. The Czech Republic will remain the Czech
Republic even after the adoption of the Constitution.
The affirmation of Václav Klaus, that states will lose the right to adopt their own laws is an absolute st upidity. Neither
the Czech parliament nor the German Bundestag will lose their role of law-makers. The Union does not intervene in a
