German MEPs anxious about touted union with Czech group

Date: 26/02/04

GERMAN members of the European Parliament's biggest group are alarmed at the prospect that a party which continues to defend the confiscation of land and property from Germans and Hungarians in post-war Czechoslovakia could attempt to join it.

The Czech Civil Democrats (ODS) of President Vaclav Klaus currently have observer status with the European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED) group in the assembly. According to Parliament insiders, discussions are taking place about whether the party would be allowed to sit alongside UK Conservative deputies in the ED wing of that group following the June election.

Although these talks are still at a preliminary stage, many of the 53 German deputies in the group are strenuously opposed to that possibility. They consider the anti-EU rhetoric of leading ODS politicians as worrying. While Klaus urged a 'Yes' vote in the Czech referendum on joining the EU last year, he has also criticized European integration for allegedly increasing economic protectionism and weakening democracy.

Furthermore, the ODS' manifesto says any arguments about rescinding the post-war 'Benes decrees' must be "strictly rejected".

Introduced by president Eduard Benes, these edicts led to the expulsion of 30,000 Hungarians from present-day Slovakia and 2.5 million Sudeten Germans from what is now Czech territory in 1945-46.

In Germany, some centre-right politicians have sought to make a revocation of the decrees a precondition for Czech entry to the EU. Edmund Stoiber, head of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), accused the Czech political establishment of failing to recognize its "guilt" on the decrees, when he tried to unseat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the 2002 general election.

Markus Ferber, an MEP with Stoiber's party, said: "Certainly, the CSU will not support the ODS' membership in the EPP-ED group. The ODS cause us a lot of concerns because of their anti-European and anti-democratic approach."

His colleague Ingo Friedrich offered similar views: "The anti-European line of Mr Klaus is not very near our approach to European unity. Mr Klaus says he is against a federation."

EPP-ED President Hans-Gert Pöttering said that the ODS would first have to apply to join the group. "They would have no guarantee of entrance into the group. We will never give up our European beliefs."

Pöttering said he had "no problem" with those ODS deputies who have been acting as observers in the EPP group. "But the question of full membership is something they would have to negotiate."

Another MEP in the group, who asked not to be named, confirmed the idea that an ODS member would be a vice-president of the EPP-ED has been broached and this had caused consternation among some German deputies.

If the ODS' membership is accepted, the most likely contender for a post as vice-president would be Jan Zaradhil, who is heading the party's list of candidates for the June election.

Parliament sources say the ODS is expected to take ten or 12 seats in Parliament. This could make it second only to the British Conservatives as the largest national delegation in the ED wing of the group.