Czech Rep not to give up opt-out from Lisbon Treaty, says PM

The Czech government does not intend to give up promoting its opt-out from the Lisbon Treaty, Prime Minister Petr Necas said in Brussels on Wednesday, after the EP recommended that member states do not deal with the opt-out from the Treaty connected with the application of the EU Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which then president Vaclav Klaus pushed through in 2009. Necas said the vote in the EP "has only the character of a recommendation and the decision is up to national parliaments."