NYT: Czech Pres. Objects to Treaty’s Property Rights - by Dan Bilefsky and Stephen Castle

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President Vaclav Klaus revealed his objection to the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty on Friday: a provision on property rights. Mr. Klaus said he feared that the provision, part of the treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, could be used as a legal basis for a flood of property claims related to the expulsion of three million Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II. He demanded a special exemption from the Charter for the Czech Republic, a gambit that could plunge the bloc into turmoil by unhinging the treaty’s delicate ratification process at the last minute. But some Czech observers said Mr. Klaus’s move was a face-saving maneuver aimed at clearing the way for him to sign a treaty he has long ridiculed.