Row over Benes decrees rumbles on

The foreign minister of Austria, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, has delivered a sharp reprimand to an apparently conciliatory remark made by the Commissar for enlargement, Günther Verheugen, about the relationship between the Benes( decrees and Czech admission to the EU. Verheugen had earlier falsely told the European Parliament that the Czech government had agreed to rescind the Benes( decrees if it found them incompatible with EU law: no such undertaking had been given and the Czech Prime Minister slapped Verheugen down sharply. Verheugen then went to Prague and said that the Benes( decrees were all in the past, that they had no judicial force any more, and therefore they should not become an issue in negotiations between the Czech Republic and the EU.

The EU ,,ambassador"to the Czech Republic, Ramiro Cibrian, reiterated this new position by the Commission. He said the issue of compensation for expellees must be resolved on a bilateral basis and not become a European issue. This is also what the Czech government and opposition say. Cibrian repeated that the Benes( decrees would not constitute an obstacle to the Czech Republic's membership of the EU.

This was not at all to Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner's liking. ,,Mr. Verheugen is mistaken,"she said coldly. ,,The problem of the Benes( decrees must be resolved before the Czech republic joins the EU."(In other words, as Austria demands, it must be a pre-condition for Czech entry to the EU). Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner thus made it quite clear that Vienna's official position is that the decrees must be abolished. The parliamentary leader of the Austrian People's Party, the elder statesman Andreas Khol, has even said that the Czechs should set up a compensation fund for expellees. [Die Welt, 15th April 2002]

European Foundation Intelligence Digest Issue No. 140 , 18th April 2002


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