Czech court buoys EU Lisbon Treaty chances

The Swedish EU Presidency is today (7 October) expected to apply maximum pressure on the Czech Republic to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, riding on a wave of positive developments after the Irish ‚yes‘ vote, including the removal of a hurdle by the Czech constitutional court on Tuesday.

The Czech Republic’s Constitutional Court rejected on Tuesday a challenge against a law related to the EU’s reform treaty, lifting a secondary hurdle to the pact’s final ratification in the country. 

A group of senators close to Eurosceptic President Václav Klaus had complained against an amendment of the parliament’s rules of procedure which requires both Houses to approve any potential shift of national competences to Brussels by a simple majority vote, insisting that majority vote is required. 

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer welcomed the ruling, a government spokesperson announced. „I applaud today’s ruling by the Constitutional Court because it clears the way for the completion of the ratification process for the Lisbon Treaty,“ Fischer is quoted as saying. 

Meanwhile, the Czech Constitutional Court still has to pronounce itself over another motion by a group of senators which questioned the conformity of the Lisbon Treaty with the country’s constitution. 

The first hearing on that challenge is expected at the end of October. 

Fischer is coming to Brussels today (7 October), at the request of his Swedish counterpart Frederik Reinfeldt, to hold a meeting with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. 

Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, will tell Prague that it cannot wait forever to hear the outcome of Klaus’s procrastination on ratifying Lisbon before moving ahead with appointing a new Commission, officials told EURACTIV. 

According to the Czech press, Štefan Füle, the country’s EU affairs minister, said that his government will try to persuade its European partners that it was doing its utmost to complete the ratification process. 

Sweden is trying to get a clearer picture at today’s meeting. As the mandate of the current Commission expires on 31 October, the 29-30 October EU summit is expected to extend it in a caretaker capacity, although the length of the extension period is unclear. 

But Stockholm is insisting that a caretaker Commission cannot be a long-term solution. 

„We need functioning institutions and we all know that a caretaker Commission cannot take serious decisions because they could be questioned in court, and that is a serious problem. If this should indeed be the outcome, we need to at the very least limit that time as much as we can,“ Swedish Secretary of State for EU Affairs Maria Åsenius told this website, speaking in Stockholm on Tuesday. 

EU leaders would like the Lisbon Treaty to enter in force by 1 January 2010. However, extending the mandate of the Commission until the end of the year could prove insufficient should Klaus continue to play for time. 

One option would be to opt for a Commission under the Nice Treaty, with less than 27 members. 

However, it is unclear what could emerge from the talks with the Czech prime minister, as President Klaus is holding his cards close to his chest. Åsenius said Swedish EU Affairs Minister Cecilia Malmström, who is going to Prague on 8 October, would not find Klaus there as he will be travelling abroad at that time. 

Czech sources told EURACTIV that Prague does not seem to be afraid of losing its commissioner. In the worst-case scenario, Czech diplomats believe that the formula 26+1 would be used, meaning 26 countries would have commissioners and the 27th would obtain Javier Solana’s job as foreign policy chief. Prague also appears to believe that the Commission would be later „upgraded“ under Lisbon when it eventually enters into force. 

Czech EU Affairs Minister Štefan Füle recently told EURACTIV that his country does not believe it will lose its commissioner, because every change to the composition of the Commission must be adopted unanimously by all member states (EURACTIV 01/10/09). 

„It means that also those countries which might potentially lose their commissioner would need to agree with such changes,“ Füle said.