ČeskéNoviny.cz

Brno - The Czech Constitutional Court may have not examined the EU Lisbon treaty the last time now, as a group of deputies or senators and the president can still propose that the court assess other parts of the treaty, different from those it has dealt with now.

They can submit the proposal during the next phases of the process of the treaty ratification.

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Earlier this year, the upper house, dominated by the Civic Democrats (ODS), asked the Constitutional Court to assess whether certain articles of the Lisbon treaty are at variance with Czech constitutional order.

The Constitutional Court today said it has found no discrepancies as far as the articles in question are concerned.

If the court had examined the treaty as a whole, it would have denied other authorised bodies and elected officials a chance to submit their own proposals, the judge-rapporteur, Vojen Guettler, said.

While the president could present his views in the public proceedings that ended today, a group of deputies or senators has had a similar chance so far, Guettler said.

“That is why it is impossible to accept the idea of the court assessing legal directives or international treaties in their entirety, as a whole, without concrete impact of their [the documents’] application or without legal arguments being highlighted [by the movants],” Guettler added.

Guettler did not anticipate how the Constitutional Court would approach a new proposal concerning the Lisbon treaty, if it received any.

The proposal that was decided on today had been submitted by the Senate. Under the law, not only both houses of parliament but also a group of senators or deputies are authorised to submit such proposals, from the moment a treaty is passed by parliament until it is signed by the president.

The president, too, can do so - in the moment the treaty is submitted to him for ratification.

Possible further objections to the treaty would probably have to relate to other parts of the document than those challenged by the Senate, otherwise the court may refuse to handle the proposal.