The Causes for Czech’s Refusal to Sign the Fiscal Compact （Kong Tianping）

Abstract：As the only EU new member state from the Central and Eastern Europe to refuse to join the EU’s fiscal compact Czech the real cause for its refusal to sign the pact was rooted in the Euroskeptism of the Civic Democratic Party, as the founder of the party, the incumbent President Voclav Klaus, whose influence on the party is quite significant. According to Klaus, if Czech Republic signed the treaty it would amount to transferring the budgetary power to Brussels,which means in principle not tightening up the budget but transferring the budgetary power to the EU. And it’s what the Czech government can never tolerate. The refusal to sign the compact has drawn harsh criticism not only from the ruling coalition members but the opposition party—the Social Democratic Party as well. It is possible that Czech Republic will sign the compact if the pro-Europe force come to power in the future.

IES Innovation Project Briefing，No. 10, 2012.