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Under Pressure
Read more about: Lisbon Treaty
Much of the talk around the result of the Lisbon Treaty is how Ireland is under pressure to sort it out. But we are not the only ones.
No pressure should be exerted on the Czech Republic to force it to quickly ratify the Lisbon treaty, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek (senior ruling Civic Democrats, ODS) told journalists today.
Now obviously I am guessing that by saying no pressure should be means some pressure has been. Considering Sarkozy is just back from there I would wager that is where the pressure is from. Another interesting point made was.
“The EU has a stable contractual base and it can continue to function within it. In this respect it is premature to jump to the conclusions regarding the future ratification of the Lisbon treaty in the Czech Republic,” Topolanek said.
It seems that the Czech are saying that the EU can continue with the Nice treaty for the time being and that there is no need to rush this through. Which may mean that they would take a long term view of what form the EU treaty should take rather then the German French position of “bring it in as soon as possible.”
If the Czechs also say no to Lisbon it could get interesting. Sidelining one nation is ok but two and suddenly it is not the crazies on the island but multiple states. Makes the plough on though case harder. Cowen may well be saying “Thank god we didn’t knock the Czechs out of Euro 2008.
I hope the Czech president vetoes it.
A reason why he just might - or at worst put it to a vote - is that we may well have legitimised other (two really) states in an attempt to delay or spike the process. Politically Europe would not be able to keep Lisbon going - which is probably why they are being so heavy handed with us right now to keep others from following suit.
It would be interesting what the governments strategy is diplomatically. Are they doing sorry lads the people are tits your great we will just get them to say yes later. Or are they sending delogations around Europe. Wonder what would happen if Cowen announced state visits to the Czech republic and Sweden. That would be fun