CZECH DELAY:CZECH PRIME minister Mirek Topolanek made a reluctant promise yesterday to work to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, but warned that a final decision may be out of his hands.
At the Brussels summit, the Czech delegation held up agreement on a final statement over its unhappiness with a draft statement calling on ratification to continue across the EU after Ireland's No vote.
Ratification is on hold in the Czech parliament after upper house senators opposed to the treaty sent it for review to the constitutional court.
"The Czech government did approve the treaty, I did sign it and I don't intend to withdraw my signature from it," said Mr Topolanek, seen as an EU realist in a party of Eurosceptics. His government would "not apply the brakes" to ratification, but he said that many leading figures in his Civic Democrats (ODS) remain unconvinced by the Lisbon Treaty.
Chief among their objections are welfare obligations that might arise from the treaty's Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.
The summit's first session broke up without agreement in the early hours of yesterday morning with Czech officials telling glassy-eyed journalists that "there is no automatic, obligatory ratification process".
Yesterday morning, Mr Topolanek was summoned for breakfast talks with the French and German leaders respectively.
After several cups of coffee, Czech officials said they proposed five solutions to the impasse.
Finally, all sides agreed on a footnote in the final statement that ratification in the Czech Republic cannot be completed "until the Constitution Court delivers its positive opinion".
"Even though it may look like a cosmetic change, it gives us the space we needed," said Mr Topolanek. "I will not withdraw my signature but I cannot influence the ratification process, that is in the hands of the court."
The court is not expected to issue a ruling before October.