MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Czech under pressure to sign Lisbon Treaty following Ireland’s YES

Euro sceptic Czech president Vaclav Klaus

Following the decisive Yes vote by the Irish electorate, EU leaders have called on Eurosceptic Czech president Vaclav Klaus to stop holding up the democratic will of all Europeans and sign the Lisbon Treaty.

“The European Council is united in its wish to see the treaty enter into force before the end of the year,” said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

“I have therefore invited prime minister [Jan] Fischer and commission president [José Manuel] Barroso to a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday,” Mr Reinfeldt said.

The parliaments and governments of the Czech Republic and Poland have ratified the treaty but a presidential signature is still required to complete the process. Polish president Lech Kaczynski is expected to sign the treaty in coming days but Mr Klaus has said he will not sign the treaty until a new legal appeal against the treaty is ruled on by the Czech constitutional court.

However, the Czech government has warned EU leaders not to exert outside pressure on its court or president as this would be “counterproductive”.

“Any direct pressure on the institutions involved in the last stage of the ratification process could be unconstructive and indeed counterproductive,” Stefan Fule, the Czech European affairs minister, told EU ambassadors in Prague in a briefing last week.

The Czech court is expected to rule before the end of the year but there are fears in Brussels that Mr Klaus will continue to withhold his signature until a Conservative government comes to power in Britain next year. Tory leader David Cameron has said he will hold a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty has not been ratified in all member states by the time he is prime minister.

The Irish referendum result showed a swing of 20% since the first referendum in June 2008. The total vote in favour of the treaty was 1,214268, or 67.1% of the valid poll. The number voting against was 594,606, which came to 32.9%.

There was also a higher turnout this time around, with 58% of those on the electoral register casting their votes. This was five percentage points up on the first Lisbon referendum in June 2008.