Czech court told Lisbon in accord with constitution

CZECH REPUBLIC:THE GOVERNMENT of the Czech Republic, which is deeply divided over whether to ratify the EU's Lisbon Treaty, has told the country's highest court that the charter is fully in line with the national constitution.

The Czech Republic came under great pressure to ratify the treaty from advocates like France and Germany following Ireland's recent No vote, but the process has been put on hold until the constitutional court rules on its legality, probably in October.

Of the EU members that have not yet ratified the treaty, the Czech Republic is the one seen as most likely to reject it, an outcome that could kill off the document.

If Prague approved the charter, however, Ireland's isolation on the issue would deepen.

Czech newspapers printed an extract from the government report, quoting it as saying that "all the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty, as it exists in its present form, as well as the Lisbon Treaty in its entirety, are in accord with the Czech constitutional order".

"Due to its ratification, no substantial change in the arrangement of the democratic legal order will occur. This would be inadmissible," the government concluded.

The European affairs minister Alexander Vondra confirmed the cabinet's findings on a treaty that prime minister Mirek Topolanek has already signed, but which must now be ratified by the lower and upper houses of parliament.

Mr Topolanek's Civic Democrats (ODS) are divided over the merits of the treaty, with some senior party members declaring it dead after Ireland's referendum. The co-founder of the party, president Vaclav Klaus, has long ridiculed the document.

However, the ODS's coalition partners, the Greens and the Christian Democrats, support the treaty, putting the government under great strain and threatening its already wafer-thin majority in parliament.

If the constitutional court does allow ratification to continue in the autumn, the treaty would probably gain the support of a majority in the lower house of parliament, but might be blocked by a strongly Eurosceptic upper house.

Such an outcome would leave the treaty at death's door, EU members at odds, the Prague government in disarray and the Czech Republic embarrassed, just as it takes over the EU's rotating presidency on January 1st next year.