WRITTEN QUESTION E-0296/00 by Hartmut Nassauer (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Progress with implementing European Union objectives in the Czech Republic.
Date: 2000-02-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Czechia, Germany, Hungary, accession negotiations, ethnic group, expropriation

C 26 E/28

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

26.1.2001

Nevertheless, the Commission will closely follow the implementation of the Agreement, once it has come
into force, and raise any difficulties with the Swiss authorities in the joint committee which is to be
established under the agreement.

(2001/C 26 E/033)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0293/00

by Hartmut Nassauer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Czech Republic(cid:146)s progress on the way to accession

(11 February 2000)

Is the Commission aware that the German government considers the Benesch decrees, in so far as they
relate to the deportation, revocation of citizenship and expropriation of Germans in former Czechoslova-
kia, as contrary to international law, and how in that connection does it view the possibility of those
decrees continuing to remain in force in the context of possible accession by the Czech Republic to the
European Union, having regard in particular to the Copenhagen political criteria?

(2001/C 26 E/034)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0294/00

by Hartmut Nassauer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Czech Republic(cid:146)s progress on the way to accession

(11 February 2000)

Is the Commission aware that Czech citizens of German nationality continue to this day to have difficulty
in recovering property lost to them on the basis of the 1945 and 1946 laws and decrees, and is the
Commission prepared to make approaches to the government of the Czech Republic in that connection in
the context of accession negotiations?

(2001/C 26 E/035)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0295/00

by Hartmut Nassauer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Czech Republic(cid:146)s progress on the way to accession

(11 February 2000)

Does the Commission share the view that the Czech Republic(cid:146)s restitution law is contrary to international
law in so far as the non-retention of Czech nationality continues to be treated as grounds for exclusion
from restitution of property even when that nationality was not surrendered voluntarily, and is the
Commission prepared to remind the government of the Czech Republic that compliance with international
law is an indispensable pre-condition for accession?

(2001/C 26 E/036)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0296/00

by Hartmut Nassauer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 February 2000)

Subject: Progress with implementing European Union objectives in the Czech Republic

Human rights violations committed against citizens of various nationalities as a result of their expulsion
from Czechoslovakia in the period after the end of the Second World War have still not been put right
even today. Many of those concerned are still living. Decrees by the Presidents of the Republic and other
laws led in 1945 and 1946 to the complete expropriation of mainly German and Hungarian property-

26.1.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 26 E/29

owners, which still affects people today and is upheld by the laws of the Czech Republic. Indeed, the
Czech Republic continues to argue that the law of 8 May 1946 declaring an amnesty for excesses
committed at the time of the expulsion remains in force.

Does the Commission share the view that to maintain laws and decrees dating back to 1945 and 1946,
which led to the expulsion of over three million European citizens and deprived them of their citizenship,
is not an appropriate way to help create an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe?

(2001/C 26 E/037)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0297/00

by Hartmut Nassauer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 February 2000)

Subject: Situation of minorities in the Czech Republic

In Commission reports on the Czech Republic(cid:146)s progress on the way to accession (1998 and 1999), it is
stated that the situation of minorities (cid:129) with the exception of the plight of the Roma people (cid:129) is
satisfactory.

Is the Commission aware that the expropriation and deportation of ethnic German population groups in
the aftermath of World War Two represents a continuing violation of compelling standards of interna-
tional law that fundamentally infringes the rights of members of the ethnic German community living in
the Czech Republic today?

(2001/C 26 E/038)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0298/00

by Hartmut Nassauer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 February 2000)

Subject: Acquisition of land in the Czech Republic

What information does the Commission have about the possibility that, after the accession of the Czech
Republic to the European Union, the Czech Finance Ministry may be seeking to prevent citizens of other
EU Member States from acquiring real estate in the Czech Republic, and what measures is the Commission
considering, bearing in mind that it has always been stressed that when the Czech Republic accedes to the
EU it will be required to accept the (cid:145)acquis(cid:146)?

(2001/C 26 E/039)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0299/00

by Hartmut Nassauer (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 February 2000)

Subject: Protection of minorities in the Czech Republic

At the Copenhagen European Council
in 1993, the European Union adopted criteria for accession
negotiations with the Central and Eastern European countries. In addition to democracy and the rule of
law, these included respect for human rights and respect for and protection of minorities.

Bearing this in mind, what is the Commission(cid:146)s view of the legal status of ethnic Germans currently living
in the Czech Republic, whose continuing expropriation pursuant to the Benes Decrees (1945 and 1946)
violates the requirement to protect minorities and the prohibition of discrimination?