On October 2nd Ireland ratified the Lisbon Treaty. But the treaty still hasn't passed its final hurdles.

In Ireland, a motion will be put before the Dáil soon, which the Irish President will then have to sign before the Treaty can be fully adopted.

Elsewhere in the EU, Eurosceptic Czech president Václav Klaus has been vehemently opposed to his country signing the treaty despite Czech parliamentary approval. Also, a group of Czech senators have lodged a case with the Czech Constitutional Court to examine the treaty in order to analyse its affect on Czech sovereignty.

The Czech High Court has prioritised the case and a ruling could be expected in by the end of October. The Treaty cannot be fully ratified in the Czech Republic until the high court ruling is announced.

President Klaus has said however, that if the Czech Constitutional Court rules in favour of the Treaty he will move to ratify it. However in recent days he has again come up with a means to stall the signing of the Lisbon Treaty. He has demanded that the Czech Republic be given an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Right of the European Union. Such an amendment would require each member state to re-ratify the Lisbon Treaty.

Furthermore, after comments from Manuel Barroso criticising Klaus's position on the treaty and for failing to accept the decision of the Czech parliament, Klaus has reportedly said that he has no plans to sign the Treaty.  

In contrast, the Czech Prime Minister, Jan Fischer has stated that he expects his country to sign and fully ratify the Lisbon Treaty.

Elsewhere, while the UK has already signed and ratified the Lisbon Treaty, a lot of speculation in the media has surrounded the UK's Conservative Party, and its leader's, David Cameron, stance on the Lisbon Treaty. He has publicly said that if the Lisbon Treaty is not yet ratified by next June, and his party is in power after the June UK election, he will hold a referendum. If the treaty is fully ratified by all countries by then he has stated that he will not hold a referendum.

Short term, it it expected that the Czech Constitutional Court will o.k. the treaty, but Klaus's and sustained opposition is likely to continue preventing the signing of the treaty. In terms of the final ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the worst case scenario would be if Klaus managed to delay its full ratification until next June's UK general election.  

You can also debate the issue on our forums.

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