Czech Law Settles Referendum on EU-Membership

Opposition towards EU-entry prevails in surveys

by Dalibor Plichta, Prague

A new law is to come into effect on 1st June 2002 in the Czech Republic, which will settle the conditions of an obligatory referendum on the entry of the Czech Republic into the European Union. The path leading to this law has been long. Certain Euro-unionist circles would have preferred a simpler and more dependable procedure: They envisioned that entry would merely need to be ratified by the Czech Parliament. A number of others were in favour of a referendum, but only for one that would make it very difficult for an entry to be rejected.

That law that has now been passed stipulates that an entry of the Czech Republic to the European Union can only be decided by a people’s referendum. The question people will be asked will be the following: ‘Do you agree to the Czech Republic’s entry to the EU under the conditions drawn up in the treaty on the entry of the Czech Republic to the EU?’

Every citizen who is entitled to take part in parliamentary elections may vote. The President of the Republic has to proclaim the referendum 30 days after the signature of the treaty at the latest and the referendum must take place not later than 120 days after that proclamation.

For a valid decision it is necessary that a majority of the country’s citizens who have taken part in the referendum decide in favour of one of the proposed answers.

The pronouncement of the referendum’s result supersedes the ratification by Parliament. That means that approval by the majority of citizens at the referendum is indispensable for the law to be ratified.

The bill had been drawn up by the Senate, the more conservative and Euro-unionist chamber of the Czech Parliament. Its bill differed from the one drawn up by the House of Representatives in that the time schedule was extremely tight: The President was to announce the referendum not more than10 days after the signing of the treaty; the referendum was to take place within 75 days after the signing. This meant the population would have much less time to inform themselves and for discussion.

So now the referendum on the issue of EU membership has become possible. But what will be the result? Public opinion in the Czech Republic on the issue of European ‘integration’ is becoming increasingly critical and sceptical. And this is in spite of the massive pro-European propaganda of the mass media, which are mainly in the hands of German trusts.

As the shape of the present and the future European Union begins to become more concrete, any illusions about a ‘return to Europe’ and a European ‘integration’ begin to dwindle among the Czech population. People are becoming more and more aware that concealed behind all the talk of shared European values lie the power interests and egotism of the dominating forces within the EU.

What is troubling the Czech People on the one hand is the EU’s agricultural policy and the discrimination of the candidate countries in various respects; on the other hand they reject the demands of certain circles in Germany and Austria for a revision of several laws passed by the Czech state, in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, after World War II. Furthermore, the population recognizes the danger that the Czech Republic could lose its sovereignty in becoming a member of the federalised European Union.

There are various indications for a decline in the interest to become a member of the EU: On April 16th this year Czech State TV asked their viewers during a round table discussion, ‘Are you for or against the Czech Republic entering the European Union?’10,560 viewers answered the question during the one-hour programme on the tele­phone: 6,612 (62.54%) rejected entry and a mere 3,960 (37.46%) were in favour of entry. A survey by the private television station Prima on April 27th produced a similar result: When asked, ‘Do you trust the Brussels bureaucracy?’ 63% of citizens answered ‘No’ and only 25% answered ‘Yes’. Another survey by the same TV station on 28th April showed that 63% of citizens believe that the Czech Republic’s joining NATO did not do them any good and also will not do so in the future.

How is the Government going to react to this unexpected and uncomfortable shift in public opinion on European ‘integration’? Will they dare to conduct a fair referendum in keeping with the law that has just been passed?