* Klaus may not demand new EU treaty ratification
* Most Czechs back Klaus's demand for opt-out
* PM Fischer says Klaus's actions damaging
(Adds Klaus's chancellor)
PRAGUE, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus may
settle for a political rather than strictly legal guarantee from
EU leaders that the bloc's new treaty does not reopen post-war
property claims, news agency CTK reported on Friday.
Klaus stunned the Czech government and other EU members last
week by demanding Czechs be granted an opt-out from the EU's
Lisbon Treaty that would prevent property claims by ethnic
Germans expelled from the country after World War Two.
The president is the only EU leader not to have signed into
law the treaty, which aims to streamline decision-making in the
27-member bloc and give it more clout on the world stage.
EU leaders have invested years of effort into the pact,
which would give the bloc a long-term president and foster
further integration, and aim to bring it to life by January.
A Klaus aide said last week that Klaus would demand a strong
and binding guarantee on the property rights, indicating he may
want a change in the treaty that would require new ratification
in all EU member states.
That would be extremely hard to achieve, with the approval
process completed in all the remaining 26 EU states.
But Klaus's Chancellor Jiri Weigl said on Friday that there
were other ways to meet Klaus's demands.
Prime Minister Jan Fischer has suggested that a way forward
could be a political declaration by EU leaders, which would
later be turned into legislation when EU members ratify the next
treaty, which is likely to be the accession treaty with Croatia.
A similar guarantee was given to Ireland, reiterating that
its neutrality, taxation and abortion laws would not be
undermined by the Lisbon Treaty.
"We are discussing options how to meet this (demand). The
president spoke about the Irish precedent and so on. It is all a
matter of discussion not only between us and the government, but
of course also with the EU," CTK quoted Weigl as saying.
Klaus's office had no immediate comment on the report.
CZECHS SHARE KLAUS'S FEAR
Klaus has struck a chord with voters in the Czech Republic,
where anxiety over the post-war expulsion of the 3 million
Sudeten Germans still surfaces from time to time.
A poll by the Median agency for the daily Lidove Noviny
showed 65 percent of Czechs backed Klaus as they feared laws
expelling Germans could be circumvented.
Families of the expelled Germans have demanded that the
Czechs recognise it was wrong to use the principle of collective
guilt in expelling the Germans.
Many of the Germans supported Hitler's Germany, which
annexed the German-populated areas of Czechoslovakia under the
Munich agreement in 1938.
Prime Minister Fischer told businessmen at a conference that
Klaus's last-minute demand was seriously harming the republic.
"It is a very damaging matter, very harmful for the Czech
Republic, let's admit this to ourselves," Fischer said.
Both houses of Czech parliament have approved the treaty.
Most lawyers and the government say Klaus's concerns are
unfounded. Some analysts say Klaus, who has long been a fierce
opponent of the treaty, is just being obstructive.
(Reporting by Jana Mlcochova and Jan Lopatka; mediting by
Ralph Boulton)
