Czech Eurosceptics allied to president plan another Lisbon Treaty challenge

CZECH EUROSCEPTICS allied to President Vaclav Klaus plan to launch another challenge to the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty in their country’s constitutional court.

The upper house of the Czech parliament, the senate, approved the treaty last week, but Mr Klaus refused to sign it into law, saying that it was for the moment “dead because it was rejected in a referendum in one member state”.

Mr Klaus and his allies in the centre-right Civic Democrat party (ODS) now appear intent on delaying Czech ratification of the treaty until after Ireland votes on it again, and until the constitutional court issues a verdict on the expected challenge from ODS senators.

The court looked at the legality of certain chapters of the treaty last year, and decided that they did not breach the Czech constitution.

“We want the constitutional court to assess the treaty as a whole this time,” said ODS member Jiri Oberfalzer, adding that he had the necessary senatorial support to launch such a challenge.

“There are 17 of us, and we even have some reserves,” Mr Oberfalzer said.

In last week’s vote, 19 ODS senators opposed the treaty and four abstained, while 12 supported the text.