EU parliament president condemned over Czech meeting

Parliament’s president Hans-Gert Pöttering has come under fire for refusing to condemn a war of words between two senior MEPs and Czech president Václav Klaus.

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), branded Pöttering’s failure to censor Greens co-leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit and UEN leader Brian Crowley as “undemocratic”.

Farage’s comments, which came during a parliamentary debate on Tuesday on the French EU presidency, follow a meeting on 5 December between parliament’s political group leaders and Klaus during a visit to Prague Castle.

In the meeting, Cohn-Bendit and Crowley both reportedly verbally attacked Klaus, with Crowley accusing the Czech president of being deliberately provocative by attending a recent dinner hosted by Libertas chief Declan Ganley, a key no campaigner in the June Lisbon referendum in Ireland.

The controversial Klaus has been an outspoken critic of the treaty.

Pöttering also took part in the visit, which came ahead of the start of the Czech presidency of the EU on 1 January.

Details of the meeting were later published by Klaus’s office, with the Czech president denouncing the attack on him as “unprecedented”.

Speaking in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Farage, who is also co-leader of the Independence/Democracy group, agreed, saying, “Not only were his [Pöttering’s] actions anti-democratic, but he is incapable of even-handed behaviour.”

Farage accused Pöttering of “failing to discipline” Cohn-Bendit and Crowley after they had “insulted” Klaus.

The British MEP described the actions of Cohn-Bendit, who apparently wanted an EU flag he had taken to the meeting to be flown over Prague Castle, as the sort of actions “that could easily have been done by a German official of 70 years ago or a Soviet official of 20 years ago”.

Farage said that PES leader Martin Schulz, also at the meeting, had suggested that opposing the Lisbon treaty would lead to fascism and that Cohn-Bendit had accused opponents of the treaty as “mentally ill”.

“This is a sham democrat in a sham parliament,” Farage said of Pöttering. “Voices who support the project are encouraged whatever the veracity, while dissident voices are silenced. I suppose it was ever thus.”

According to press reports, Czech MEP Jan Zahradil, who did not attend the meeting, agreed that Pöttering had failed in his role.

During Tuesday’s debate, French president Nicolas Sarkozy called it an “outrage” and a “wound” that Klaus did not want EU flags flying from public buildings.

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