Klaus signs EU reform treaty, criticizes court decision (Roundup)

Nov 3, 2009, 16:24 GMT

   Prague/Brussels - Czech President Vaclav Klaus signed the European Union's Lisbon Treaty on Tuesday, removing the final obstacle to a major reform of the 27-member bloc after weeks of uncertainty.

'I am informing you that I signed the Lisbon Treaty today at 3 o'clock (1400 GMT),' a stone-faced Klaus told reporters in Prague.

Klaus had previously criticized a decision by the Czech constitutional court, which declared that the Lisbon Treaty does not clash with the country's constitution and does not pose a risk to its national sovereignty, thus making the president's signature possible.

   'The Constitutional Court's ruling is not a neutral legal analysis but a biased political defence of the Lisbon Treaty on the part of its supporters,' said Klaus, who is known as an eurosceptic.

   Klaus had claimed that the Czech Republic would 'cease to be a sovereign state' under Lisbon.

   The treaty, aimed at turning the EU into an influential global player, is now expected to enter into force as of December 1.

   Prime Minister Jan Fischer also penned his signature on the treaty, meaning the Czech Republic has completed the ratification process, spokesman Roman Prorok told the German Press Agency dpa.

The announcement was greeted positively by EU officials.

'I welcome that President Klaus has taken the crucial step of signing the instrument of ratification on the Treaty of Lisbon in the Czech Republic. It's now absolutely clear that the Lisbon Treaty will enter into force soon,' European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement.

'The road is now open for the consultations on the appointment of the President of the European Council and Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative to begin', two posts created by the treaty, Barroso said.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, holder of the EU's rotating presidency, said he would soon call an extraordinary EU summit to discuss who should fill the new posts.

'To finalize the treaty preparations, I will now begin name consultations. As soon as possible, I will also call for an EU summit,' Reinfeldt said in a statement issued from Washington, where he was attending an EU-US summit. The extraordinary summit is expected to take place in mid-November, diplomats said.

The new EU president is to remain in office for at least two-and-a-half years, replacing the bloc's current system of six-month rotating presidencies. Former British premier Tony Blair had been tipped as a possible candidate for the post.

However, the current prime ministers of Belgium and the Netherlands have since emerged as frontrunners.

Klaus' signature also unblocked talks on a new European Commission, the EU's executive, whose official mandate expired on Sunday.

   The EU wants the new institutions in place as early as possible.

'The European Parliament can now proceed with the hearings of the new Commission as quickly as possible,' said Jerzy Busek, head of the European Parliament.

Under EU rules, the European Parliament has the power to vet commissioners-designate and veto their appointment.

Busek said parliament would be ready to start hearings as of November 25.

The treaty had already been ratified by the remaining 26 EU member states.

   But Klaus, a treaty opponent, had been dragging out his feet since the bicameral Czech parliament approved it in May.

   He posed two conditions for his signature - the court's clearance and an opt-out for the Czech Republic from a part of the reform accord, the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. EU leaders agreed to the op-out at a summit last week.

Klaus had argued that his country needed the exemption in order to prevent property claims by ethnic Germans expelled from former Czechoslovakia after World War II.

   In an effort to give the EU a stronger voice and a more efficient decision-making process, the Lisbon Treaty also introduces a post of a de-facto foreign minister and strips the bloc's members of veto rights in a number of areas.

   The text replaced a failed EU constitution, which was rejected by Dutch and French voters in 2005. The new treaty, the first major reform of the EU since 2000, was first rejected and then approved by Irish voters in two referenda.

In defiance of the opposition Conservative Party, which opposes greater EU integration, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called Tuesday's developments an 'historic step for all of Europe.'