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Swedish relief as Czechs sign Lisbon Treaty

Published: 3 Nov 09 17:58 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/23056/20091103/

The Swedish EU presidency can begin its hunt for a new EU Council president after Czech President Vaclav Klaus put pen to paper on Tuesday to make his country the last in the union to sign the Lisbon Treaty.

"Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the treaty. Thus the final hurdle in the way of the Treaty of Lisbon has been cleared," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said in a statement.

The Swedish PM, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, added that he would call an EU summit shortly and would "now begin name consultations" among the 27 member states on who to choose as the first EU Council president and the foreign policy high representative which the treaty creates.

Unofficial talks on the two new posts began in earnest at a regular EU summit in Brussels last week, with the early favourite for president, former British prime minister Tony Blair seeing his chances fade.

Reinfeldt also announced officially that the Lisbon Treaty, devised to streamline the European Union and ease its decision-making process, could now come into force on December 1.

That became possible after a Czech constitutional court ruling opened the way for the eurosceptic Klaus to join his 26 fellow European leaders and ratify the treaty, which he did earlier on Tuesday.

"After a long journey, the Treaty of Lisbon has reached the goal... The Treaty enters into force on 1 December and all the details must now be put into place," said a relieved Reinfeldt.

Treaty opponents warn that the text represents a major step towards a federal Europe.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

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19:28 November 3, 2009 by Plowbridge
A very sad day for many Europeans. Unsurprisingly Reinfeldt hasn't got a clue what he is doing but can finally take a little credit for something; Even if it is convening over the destruction of elected rule in place of bureaucratic repression.
20:21 November 3, 2009 by Nemesis
This si good news.

Now hopefully Europe can operate in a more efficient manner and we can all move forward together.
22:11 November 3, 2009 by Soft Boiled
MEP Exposes The EU Lisbon Treaty!!! i would post a link but this site seems to like that
00:38 November 4, 2009 by Davey-jo
UK Conservatives now refuse to support a referendum. (What a surprise!)

Don't be surprised if UK citizens are less than enthusiastic at having Euro laws imposed without even a vestige of democratic process. It may be the best thing ever to have happened but without democratic credentials the Lisbon Treaty has no legs ... I can't understand the cowardice of the pro-Europeans to put this to the people properly.
01:21 November 4, 2009 by Greg in Canada
Europe is just one big dysfunctional family. Over all the EU is probably a very good thing despite the many headaches but at times I'm certainly glad to be on the other side of the Atlantic.
07:26 November 4, 2009 by Nemesis
@ Greg in Canada

Well at least Europe is not as dysfunctional as Canada and the USA:)
11:16 November 4, 2009 by Soft Boiled
Jens-Peter Bonde, Danish MEP

There are 8,500 more words in the new text than the old one

but since they had the instruction from Sarkozy to make a

mini-treaty, the council was then instructed to change the font

so that they have less space between the lines and now they

managed to have 8,500 more words and 62 pages less. So that

way you can make a mini-treaty.

It´s not a very sympathetic way the European Council have worked

In this case they took a political agreement among

Prime Ministers that this text should not be put for referendum

anywhere, then they tried to avoid it in Ireland, they realised

it was not possible because your (Irelands) courts in this

country are still too independant, Congratulations on that.

Because you should know that what is published up ´til now,

what is signed by the Prime Ministers is a text they have

NEVER EVER READ! NEVER. Why? Because it can´t

Be read. This is not a treaty, this is 300 pages of amendments

To 3,000 other pages of treaties and you can only read it if

you take one amendment by one and then look it up in

the existing treaties and insert it. We will do that job for you

so that you will have as reader friendly an edition as possible.

They have decided in the council that its not allowed for any

Institution in the European Union to print a consolidated

version which can be read before it has been approved in all

27 member states. This is a decision! The European Parliament,

we agreed unanymously in the Costitutional Affairs Committee

that we wanted a reader friendly edition, a consolidated version

which could be read unanymously. We will not have it

because higher powers decided we cannot have it.

This is an instruction from some Prime Ministers that do not

want the text to be read. The order is ..SIGN! Read afterwards

495,000,000 people across Europe have no vote on the treaty.
16:25 November 4, 2009 by Zatoichi
Just don't sign on to that Global Climate Change piece of crap in Copenhagen this December.
16:52 November 4, 2009 by 2394040
The march towards the New World Order continues unabated.
20:48 November 5, 2009 by mkvgtired
Why are so many people belittling the Brits lately? I'd be pissed too if such a drastic change was being forced on me that was not approved by the public. Brits keep your voices up.
15:12 November 6, 2009 by Twiceshy
Europe is just a bunch of tiny countries in a tiny continent, with very tiny potential.

Isn't it time these tiny people realised they could be stronger united?
13:44 November 7, 2009 by Angst
I guess now the building of the monstrous EU Presidential Palace will begin. I have been unable to find any mention of this in either the Guardian, DN, Svenska Dagbladet or The Local.

Only The Telegraph had to courage to let us know - and to spell out that it will cost a staggering £280 millions. Here is the link for readers of The Local:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6235333/EU-presidents-palace-will-cost-us-millions.html
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