The Czech Republic wants to broker an agreement to reduce the size of the European Commission during its EU presidency in case the Irish reject the Lisbon Treaty again.
Deputy prime minister Alexander Vondra said yesterday the presidency needed to plan ahead for every eventuality with regard to the EU's future institutional framework.
"On the composition of the commission we have to be ready for both possible scenarios: one scenario is that the Lisbon Treaty enters force at the end this year or we have to act and co-operate in the EU under Nice," he told The Irish Times ahead of a meeting of European affairs ministers in Prague today.
Under the terms of the Nice treaty the next EU executive must be composed of one less commissioner than the number of member states. But under the Lisbon Treaty the heads of state of all 27 member states can with a unanimous agreement maintain the current situation whereby all member states are represented by a commissioner in Brussels.
The Irish Government has already secured an agreement from all 27 EU leaders that they will invoke the clause in Lisbon enabling all member states to retain a commissioner as one of the guarantees it is seeking before holding a second referendum.
It would prefer that any discussion of the possible future composition of the commission in case of a No vote in the Republic should wait until after any second referendum is staged in the autumn.
"I've been making the point to colleagues let's take this one step at a time. There is only one plan at the moment and that is the one agreed at the December EU summit," said European Affairs Minister Dick Roche, who added this involved completing detailed work on the legal guarantees the Government needed to reassure the Irish people.
But Prague believes it cannot wait until after any second vote on Lisbon is held before preparing a viable contingency plan on how the next commission would operate under the Nice rules.
"We need a plan B," said a Czech source, without saying what it would be.
Diplomats in Brussels have already floated a range of possible formulas for the composition of a commission under the Nice Treaty rules. One proposal is to have 26 commissioners representing 26 states with the country holding the post of high representative for foreign affairs losing its seat on the commission. This idea is unpopular in Spain, whose representative is the current high representative, Javier Solana.
Another possibility is to substitute the secretary general of the commission for a commissioner, the current incumbent is Irishwoman Catherine Day.
This would mean Ireland would be the only country without a commissioner. But EU sources say this controversial option is extremely unlikely as it would be seen to be pressurising Ireland.
Nevertheless, any formula to reduce the size of the commission that is published before a second Irish referendum could highlight to the electorate in stark terms the impact of a second No vote on whether it is able to retain a commissioner in Brussels.
Meanwhile, Prague also announced yesterday that it expects to ratify Lisbon before the end of its six-month presidency despite the trenchant opposition of Czech president Vaclav Klaus.
"It is highly improbable that his personal opinion will prevail over the need to respect the Czech parliament . . . It is quite clear from all his statements that if the Irish ratify it, then he is prepared to sign it," said Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek.