4 November 2009 / AP , PRAGUE
A Czech court ruled Tuesday that the EU reform treaty is in line with the country’s constitution, removing the proposed charter’s last legal hurdle and intensifying pressure on President Vaclav Klaus to sign the document already ratified by the other member nations.
The Constitutional Court’s chief judge, Pavel Rychetsky, said the so-called Lisbon Treaty “does not violate the constitution.” At the end of the ruling whose reading took almost two hours, Rychetsky said all formal obstacles for ratification “are removed.” Klaus is the last obstacle to the full ratification of the treaty, which is designed to transform Europe into a more unified and powerful global player. The charter, which was bogged down in negotiations for almost a decade, has been ratified by all other 26 EU nations. In Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was “extremely pleased” with the verdict. ”Together with the commitments given by all member states to the Czech government at the European Council last week, I believe that no further unnecessary delays should prevent the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty,” Barroso said. “I hope that we can now move forward as quickly as possible on the nomination of the president of the European Council and vice president of the Commission High Representative,” he said.
