In the document on the treaty the government has submitted to the court and iDnes.cz has obtained it says that the Constitutional Court should mainly assess the "core of the Czech Constitution" while deciding whether the Lisbon treaty contradicts it and it should not deal with some formal chapters in the constitution, iDnes writes. However, some lawyers disagree with such position.
For instance, former constitutional judge Vaclav Pavlicek told the server that "if the court were to analyse Merkel Says Lisbon Treaty Will be Implemented ...
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Brussels Gloomy as Irish 'No' Likely on EU Treaty ... the contradiction of any document with the Czech constitution it should analyse its contradiction with all its chapters and not only some of them." iDnes.cz writes that the treaty could contradict many chapters in the constitution. For instance, its 10a chapter says that the Czech Republic can transfer its powers only on the basis of an international agreement ratified by the parliament. However, if the Lisbon treaty took effect the EU would be able to assume other powers from the EU member states, without their consent, the server writes. For the court not to try to resolve this contradiction the government urges it not to deal with it, it says. The government has come up with the theory of the "material core of the constitution" to which the disputed chapter does not belong, in its opinion. It is therefore not necessary to deal with it since what is important is that the treaty corresponds with the "core of the constitution," the government says in its position handed to the court, according to the sever. "According to the government's idea, the Constitutional Court should in the first place study the treaty from the point of view of the "material core" of the constitution, which means the assessment of the fundamental principles of a democratic law-abiding state," the server quotes the government's document as saying. "The principles of the material core should be interpreted in the context of the constitution as a whole, including the fact that the Czech Republic has supported the idea of European integration," the government says. The government believes that the core of the Czech constitution lies in the fact that the Czech Republic is a democratic country and the adoption of the Lisbon treaty will not change this fact, iDnes.cz writes. All the rest, including the country's sovereignty, does not belong to the core of the constitution and the Lisbon treaty therefore cannot contradict it and the court should not harbour any fears in this respect, the server says. According to Jiri Pospisil, senator for the ODS, it is the trick by which the government intends to persuade the Constitutional Court to approve the Lisbon treaty. The government is aware that the treaty can contradict certain constitutional chapters, he says. "The government has circumvented this fact by saying that there is some core that is an unchangeable part of the constitution while all the rest is less important," Pospisil says. The government thus believes that it is enough for the Czech Republic to remain a democratic country and it will remain such also under the guardianship of Brussels officials, Pospisil told iDnes.cz. He says the constitution is valid as a whole and all its parts are equal and none of them is less important. "This is only a theoretical construction that some of its parts are more valuable and some less," he said. People around President Vaclav Klaus also criticise the government's position on the Lisbon treaty, iDnes.cz writes. "If we accept the government's interpretation we would not have to change the constitution even if we intended, for instance, to change our election system," Klaus's adviser Tomas Hass told iDnes.cz. In its document the government reacts negatively to the Senate's question of whether the treaty annuls the constitution's chapter 15 according to which the legislative power lies with the Czech parliament, iDnes.cz writes. According to the government, this chapter is not violated because even if the Czech Republic transferred certain powers to the EU it would retain some of them. The chapter would only be violated if the Czech Republic transferred all its powers to the EU, the government says. However, even after the ratification of the Lisbon treaty the Czech parliament will continue to pass internal legislation, it says, according to the server. The government drew its position on the Lisbon treaty for the Constitutional Court that is examining whether it is consistent with the Czech constitution at the request of the Czech Senate, dominated by the euro-sceptical ODS. Since the Irish rejected the Lisbon treaty, its adoption is uncertain. European heads of state agreed at their summit in Brussels last Friday that the ratification of the Lisbon treaty continued irrespective of the outcome of the Irish referendum. However, President Klaus says the ratification procedure should be stopped after the Irish rejected the treaty in a referendum but Deputy Prime Minister for European affairs Alexandr Vondra (ODS) and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (for the Greens) say the Czech Republic should ratify the treaty still before it takes over EU presidency next January. The Senate, in which the ODS has a majority, has initiated sending the treaty to the Constitutional Court to check whether it is in harmony with the Czech constitution.
(Ceske Noviny)
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