Final Word from Tuesday, July 23, 2002
Václav Klaus said in Právo today that European Union accession is a done deal and that nothing he or anyone else does could slow it down or derail it. It's a political issue, he said, and negotiations about individual accession chapters are just a show to make it look as though there are serious talks taking place and serious issues being resolved. The real decisions about accepting or not accepting new members are made elsewhere, he said. ODS's goal, he stressed, is to make sure the CR enters the EU under acceptable terms and to try to get the Union to follow a reasonable path in the future. There's been speculation that ODS might try to interfere with the accession process, but he indicated that it wouldn't gain from this. He said he expects the media massage prior to the accession referendum in the CR to be something so extraordinary that a No vote is unlikely.