News Analysis: Czech Republic, Britain deepen EU treaty impasse

by Zhang Bihong

BRUSSELS, June 20 (Chinese media) -- A two-day European Union (EU) summit ending here Friday failed to break the impasse caused by the "no" vote on a reform treaty in Ireland's last week referendum.

On the contrary, the crisis tends to be deepened because of the uncertain ratification prospects in the Czech Republic and Britain, observers here say.

EU leaders agreed to postpone a decision on the Lisbon Treaty to give Ireland more time to find out the reasons of the rejection, recognizing the difficulties that the Czech Republic is facing in ratification.

"The European Council agreed that more time was needed to analyze the situation," the final conclusions of the summit said, urging Ireland for suggestions on this issue at the Oct.15 summit to find "the way forward."

But the Czech Republic further strained the nerves of the EU and its other members' leaders on the hard-negotiated treaty as it threatened to block a joint call for the continuation of the ratification process of the treaty.

Due to the opposition of the Czechs, the summit conclusion did not explicitly call on other countries to continue ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, which was signed by EU leaders at the end of last year.

"The European Council noted that 19 member states have ratified the treaty and that the ratification process continues in other countries," the document said.

Most EU members preferred to a stronger commitment to convey a message that the treaty, a revised version of the constitutional treaty aborted in 2005 by "no" votes in French and Dutch referenda, is not dead.

"It is very disappointing and the future is pessimistic because the leaders can't even agree on a call for continuing the ratification," said a European Commission official. "The Czechs bring more clouds."

The Czech ratification process was suspended in April after the Senate demanded a constitutional court ruling on whether the treaty is in line with the Czech constitution.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a euroskeptic, declared the Lisbon Treaty is dead following the Irish rejection.

Also to address the Czech concerns, a footnote to the final conclusions said: "The European Council noted that the Czech Republic cannot complete the ratification process until the constitutional court delivers its positive opinion on the accordance of the Lisbon Treaty with the Czech constitutional order."

Another trouble comes from Britain, whose lawmakers ratified the treaty Wednesday night, because a London High Court judge called to delay ratification before he rules on a legal bid to force a referendum.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday after the summit that Britain could not definitively ratify the treaty until the court has ruled on the validity of the move after a legal challenge.

"Ratification will not take place of course until we have had the judgment from the judge," Brown told journalists on the sidelines of the summit.

Brown said that the court's ruling was due to come next week and that the final steps between the treaty receiving royal assent, already done Thursday, and final ratification would also need time.

The final step in the ratification process is when Britain deposits its "instruments of ratification" in Rome within weeks as technically the Lisbon Treaty is a revision to the Rome Treaty.

Efforts to push forward will continue.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who insisted no treaty, no further EU enlargement, would visit Ireland to try to find a way out next month when his country takes over the rotating EU presidency.

One of the proposals is to ask the Irish people to vote again with assurances that the treaty will neither deprive them of a commissioner in Brussels nor undermine their neutrality.

The council did not make any deadline for anybody to solve the problem of the treaty, but most leaders pin a hope that a solution can be found in October.

However, Ireland does not have the confidence as its Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said: "That council in October is an opportunity to make a progress report, but we would not anticipate that there would be solutions on the table in October."