* Vondra says votes will be comfortably found
* Says rejection would isolate Czechs, hurt credibility
By Jan Lopatka
PRAGUE, May 5 (Reuters) - The Czech upper house will likely
approve the EU's Lisbon Treaty in a tense vote planned for
Wednesday, removing a major obstacle to the pan-European reform
plan, Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said on Tuesday.
The Czech Republic is one of only several countries that
have not yet completed the ratification process for the pact. A
strong eurosceptic wing in its biggest party -- Vondra's
right-wing Civic Democrats -- has thrown its fate into doubt.
The Lisbon Treaty would give the bloc a beefed-up foreign
representative, a long-term president, take away national vetoes
on some decisions and raise the voting power of big EU states.
It is meant to help overcome stalemates in decision-making
within the European Union, which has grown from 15 to 27 members
since 2004. But it has sparked protests by Czech President
Vaclav Klaus and Civic Democrat lawmakers who say the treaty
takes away national sovereignty and is a step towards a European
superstate.
The charter has broad support among other parties in the
Senate but still needs seven votes from the 36-strong Civic
Democrat bloc to get the three-fifths required for
ratification.
Vondra, in charge of European affairs in the outgoing Czech
cabinet, said those votes would be comfortably found.
"I think it will go through," Vondra told Reuters in an
interview. "I think we will have a solid soccer team of 11 with
some substitutes on the bench."
BATTERED IMAGE
Lisbon ratification could partially improve the Czechs'
international image, tarnished by the collapse of the
centre-right cabinet in March, midway through the country's
six-month term as EU president.
Vondra, who will hand over his post to a caretaker minister
on May 8, said the Lisbon treaty was not 100 percent but "60-40"
positive for the country, but still worth ratifying.
"If we rejected it now in the Senate, it would be a signal
we are losing a sense of self-preservation," he said.
"We signed the treaty and a mid-sized country must think
four times before it dares to blow it up in parliament. It would
fundamentally erode the credibility of our country and put us in
isolation for years, on the fringe of European affairs."
Czech ratification always looked difficult, but seemed even
more threatened after the cabinet's fall made some senators who
share Klaus's views feel less loyal to Prime Minister Mirek
Topolanek.
Topolanek, like Vondra, grudgingly backs the treaty as a
price worth paying for a stronger European Union that could
better jointly resist geopolitical pressure from Russia.
Some big European nations, including Germany and France,
have warned further EU expansion is impossible without Lisbon.
The treaty must be ratified by all EU countries to take
effect. It has so far only been rejected by a referendum in
Ireland, which is expected to hold a second vote later this
year.
It also lacks the president's signature in Poland and faces
a challenge in Germany's constitutional court. Vondra said the
German court proceedings should not be underestimated.
"Certainly for the German Constitutional court, questions of
sovereignty and subsidiarity (making decisions at the lowest
possible level of political authority) are not an inferior
issue," Vondra said.
If approved in the Czech parliament, the treaty will likely
face a constitutional challenge -- although the country's top
court has already once cleared key parts of the document -- and
possible delays from President Klaus, who must sign it to
complete ratification.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
