We want opt-out clause on Lisbon treaty too, says Slovakian PM Robert Fico

SLOVAKIA'S prime minister has said he may try to negotiate an opt-out clause in the European Union's Lisbon treaty to protect the nation from potential post-war property claims.

Robert Fico said yesterday his government may ask for a similar clause to that being demanded by Czech president Vaclav Klaus, the only EU leader who has not ratified the treaty.

Mr Klaus threw up a last-minute hurdle last week when he said he would not sign the treaty until the bloc added such a footnote to the Czech version.

The aim is to prevent families of some 3 million Sudeten Germans expelled after the Second World War from circumventing Czech courts and seeking EU high court rulings on claims concerning land seized under the so-called Benes Decrees.

"We will not leave Slovakia in uncertainty if we feel that one of the seceding countries of former Czechoslovakia has negotiated an exception," Mr Fico said on television.