Czechs to ask for opt-out on charter as treaty delay continues

THE Czech government is to ask its fellow EU member states to allow the country to opt out of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in an effort to persuade their president to sign the Lisbon Treaty.

All countries, with the exception of the Czech Republic, have ratified the treaty. However, despite both the parliament and the senate approving it, President Vaclav Klaus has refused to sign it.

In the latest in a series of reasons not to sign the treaty, Klaus claims the charter would allow up to three million German speakers expelled from Czechoslovakia after the war to reclaim their land.