The lower house of the Czech parliament approved the European Union's Lisbon Treaty today, a key but not final step toward ratification in the central European country.
The lower house voted 125 to 61 to adopt the document which aims to reform the EU's institutions to make it more flexible after the bloc's expansion in the past years.
Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche said it was an important step forward for the ratification process in the Czech Republic.
"The passage of the treaty through the Chamber of Deputies, by a sweeping majority, is a clear sign of the continuing feeling across Europe that the treaty offers our best hope of equipping the Union with the tools we need to protect ourselves in these uncertain times," he said.
The treaty must still be ratified in the upper house, the Senate, where it may sit for weeks or even months as many right-wing senators demand the country first ratifies a plan to host a US missile defence shield base.
Most of the 27 member states have adopted the treaty and the Czech delay has irked some EU partners who have pressured Prague, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, to adopt the document quickly.
The Lisbon treaty must be approved by all EU members to take effect.
The pact suffered a major blow when Irish voters rejected it in a referendum last year. Ireland plans to hold a new vote later in 2009 although Taoiseach Brian Cowen has declined to confirm a date yet.
The treaty also faces constitutional court challenge in Germany and has not been signed by the Polish president.
The pact would give the EU a long-term president, a stronger foreign policy chief, and would take away individual countries' veto rights in some areas.
Some members of the right-wing ruling Civic Democratic party voted against the pact due to what they said was threat it would infringe on national sovereignty. Some have even threatened to quit the ranks of the minority administration if ratification is completed.
Reuters