Topolanek also informed Klaus about today's Prague visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the talks of the Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) representatives. The Lisbon treaty was one of EU to open anti-dumping probe into US biodiesel ...
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Largest number of children since 1993 born in CzechRep last year ... the topics that Sarkozy discussed in Prague with Topolanek. According to Sarkozy, the main task is to prevent a crisis and not to allow a trench to be dug between the countries that would ratify the treaty and those that would not. He said he would go to Ireland to negotiate with Prime Minister Brian Cowen on further steps to be taken. Sarkozy said he does not want Europe to be stopped by an institutional discussion for the next ten years. Topolanek said after the meeting that the situation concerning the ratification of the treaty was very serious and that politicians should be given time to resolve it. At the end of last week, Klaus welcomed the fact that the Irish rejected the Lisbon treaty in a referendum held on Thursday, calling it "the victory of freedom and reason over artificial elitist projects and European bureaucracy." "Politicians have allowed the citizens to express their opinion only in a single EU country," Klaus noted, referring to the fact that Ireland is the only country ratifying the treaty in a referendum, not in parliament. Klaus says the result should be a clear message to all. "The Lisbon treaty project ended today with the Irish voters' decision and its ratification cannot continue," Klaus writes on his website. However, representatives of many European countries have made it clear that the ratification of the document should continue. Klaus today did not meet Sarkozy due to his health condition but sent a letter to him in which he said that he firmly believed that he would be able to welcome Sarkozy during his state visit to the Czech Republic. The French president last officially visited the Czech Republic in 1997 when Jacques Chirac arrived in Prague. France will assume the EU rotating presidency in the second half of this year. The Czech Republic will take it over France in the first half of 2009.
(Ceske Noviny)
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