By KUNA
Vienne : The Slovakian Parliament approved with a majority here Friday the new European treaty that will replace the European constitution, after the treaty was rejected by the France and Holland through a referendum.
The treaty was voted positively by 103 deputies, while five deputies voted against it, and only one deputy refrained from voting, in a session that was attended by 109 deputies.
Slovakia is now being the ninth country in the European Union EU that adopts the EU treaty for reforms, known as the Lisbon treaty.
The treaty needed 90 votes from a total of 150 Slovakian deputies in order to pass, and the abandonment of one of the opposing parties from boycotting the sanctioning procedures helped in gaining the majority of votes needed to agree on the treaty as Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico wished.
Two parties refused to participate in the elections, namely Christian Democrats and Social Christians, because of the way the government followed in the voting, which the two parties considered a procedural violation, and they did not refuse the treaty itself.
A second reason for the opposing parties boycotting of the elections is the new media law that a number of human rights associations considered it against the freedom of expression in the country, and this reason has nothing to do with the nature of the treaty.
When the treaty of Lisbon starts to be effective by the beginning of next year, the president of the EU will be elected during a European summit for the period of two years and a half, besides the integration of the European high committee on foreign affairs and the subcommittee on security and defense, where the new committee president will be a vice president of the EU president.
By the beginning of next year, the two-thirds will be accredited instead of majority of the member countries in electing the commissioner-general.