Czech president wants protective clause in new Lisbon Treaty

PRAGUE Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- President Vaclav Klaus may demand a short but for Czechs very important addition to the Lisbon Treaty -- a clause against possible German demands for their assets confiscated after World War II.

According to a Polish source, Klaus, who has been stalling on signing the new European Union treaty for months, wants to make sure that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights will not be used against Czechs by Germans and their families who had to leave Czechoslovakia and lost great fortunes as a result of the so-called Benes decrees in the late 1940s.

Before the war, Czechoslovak citizens of German nationality were predominant in Sudetenland -- the border areas of Bohemia. They also owned large part of Prague -- formerly a multicultural city with strong German and Jewish minorities. They even increased their holdings by so-called arysation, which referred to transfering Jewish property to persons of Aryan origin during the war.

Real estate once owned by Germans now is in the hands of Czechs-- some even belong to multinational companies now, but the evicted Germans and their heirs still claim the property - sometimes with more, sometimes with less support from German politicians.

The deported Germans sometimes argue that the EU Charter gives them the right to recover their houses and land. Czech courts have rejected their demands, but the Lisbon Treaty may - according to some experts - mean that decision-making will not stay in the Czech Republic.