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Czech President signs EU treaty

Paris: Czech President Vaclav Klaus signed the revised Lisbon Treaty paving the way for its enforcement within the 27 member European Union in the days to come. Mr. Klaus, a known Euro-skeptic, signed the treaty just hours after his country’s constitutional court rejected a legal challenge to the Treaty.

Mr. Klaus was the last EU leader to ratify the treaty and his signature, coming after the top Czech court cleared the pact, means the bloc of nearly half a billion people can pick its first-ever long-time President and a more powerful foreign representative.

“I signed the Lisbon Treaty today at 3 p.m.,” Mr. Klaus told reporters. Leaders across the EU heaved a sigh of relief after the irascible Czech leader, who had kept them guessing and on their toes with incertitude signed the document.

The revised Lisbon Treaty that reshapes the institutions of the European Union, permitting greater cohesion and the appointment of a President and Foreign Minister for the 27-nation body, has now been ratified by all the 27 member states and can be enforced.

Earlier on Tuesday, Czech constitutional justices dismissed the complaint by a group of Euro-skeptic senators that the Lisbon Treaty violates the country’s Constitution.

Last week Mr. Klaus obtained a special opt-out clause from the European Human Rights Charter, one of the pillars of the treaty. Under the new arrangement, ethnic Germans forced out of the former Czechoslovakia after World War II will not be allowed to reclaim their property.

The delay in implementing the treaty has hampered the work of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, whose mandate expired at the end of October. Nominations for the top two EU jobs — the EU President and Foreign Affairs Minister — have been delayed as a result.

Backers of the treaty got more good news on Tuesday as a British newspaper said main opposition leader David Cameron, widely tipped to be the next prime minister, would drop plans for a referendum on the treaty.

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