Will he, won’t he….

Now that Ireland is officially the 26th country to ratify the Lisbon Treaty*, all eyes fall on Czech President, Václav Klaus, to give it the final signature it needs to come into affect. But his constant barrage of reasons for postponing his signature has not gone down well among EU leaders.

Klaus has requested an opt-out that would prohibit German families expelled after the Second World War from lodging property claims at the European Court of Justice. This request does seem to be rather insincere especially as Germany has already agreed that no such claims will be made and also that the Charter can not be applied retrospectively. 

This opt-out he has called for is believed to be shaped in the same style as the guarantees we received but the timing and nature of the quest has fuelled speculation that he is trying to hold out until May 2010, when the eurosceptic Conservative party are expected to come to power in Britain. David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, has vowed to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which is expected to be rejected by the British public, if it is not fully ratified by the next general election. 

Adding fuel to his media fire, after meeting with Russian President, Dimitry Medvedev yesterday, Klaus has publicly announced that he “never intends” to sign the Treaty even though it has already been approved by the Czech Parliament and Prime Minister, stating that he fears “a deepening of European Union integration”.

On 27 October the Czech Constitutional Court is to rule on the latest challenge to the Treaty – which is highly likely to throw out the case taken by a group of eurosceptic Christian Democratic Union (CDU) senators. We’ll keep you posted.

Work still continues…

In the meantime, all EU leaders are set to meet in Brussels on 29 October for a European Council to decide on the new European Commission. Without full ratification, the formation of the new European Commission hangs in limbo over the confusion as to whether it should be structured under Nice or Lisbon rules – so here’s a quick recap of the rules: 

The current Swedish Presidency has said that, instead of a country loosing their commissioner, we could use a 26+1 system, whereby, the 27th country will be assigned the position of High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

And for the President…

Rumours have already started circulating as to who will fill the President of the European Council.. Hotly topped is former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. His nomination has been endorsed just yesterday by Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi but he’s opposed by others mainly due to his involvement in Iraq. Other candidates include former Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, promoted by Germany, and the current Luxembourg prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker. Our former President Mary Robinson is currently the leading women whose name is in the mix. And things are looking up for the small countries as Commission President, José Manuel Barroso has since hinted that he would like to see the first Council President coming from one of the smaller countries.

Until Klaus puts the final signature to the Treaty, nothing is certain.

Until next Nugget, which will give you the run-down of the potential candidates for Commissioner across Europe….

European Movement Ireland  

*A great pub quiz answer isn’t it? Though we approved the Lisbon Treaty before the Polish President signed, our decision is not fully legal until President McAleese puts her signature to it, which is set to happen when she returns from Luxembourg tonight.  So, we are ratifying country #26.

European Movement Ireland

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