Klaus adds another hurdle

Posted By Joshua Keating Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 6:02 PM Share

Vaclav Klaus had previously said that he would finally sign the Lisbon treaty, once the Czech constitutional court had ruled on its legality. It seems he's just moved the goalpost back again, by asking for a two-sentence footnote to be added to the treaty:

Mr Reinfeldt said the requested footnote was linked to the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights.[...]
According to Mr Reinfeldt, Mr Klaus also wants the new footnote adopted by the European Council, the grouping of EU heads of state and prime ministers.[...]
The Czech president told him he would sign Lisbon if he got the extra footnote and if the Czech Constitutional Court rejected the senators' legal challenge, Mr Reinfeldt said.

Klaus has denied rumors that he is trying to delay the ratification of the treaty until Britain could elect a Conservative government that would call for a new referendum, but this latest move does look like a transparently obvious delaying tactic.

Perhaps all the media attention over the last few days has convinced Klaus he can withstand European pressure. It should be fun to see how many reasons he can come up with not to put his name on a piece of paper over the next few months.

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4:10 AM ET

October 13, 2009

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