(Repeats story published late on Thursday)
By Jan Lopatka
PRAGUE, June 19 (Reuters) - Tripped up by an Irish
referendum "No", the EU's reform treaty looks set to get a
bruising kick in the ribs from a new kid in the bloc.
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is seen as unlikely to
bow to pressure from other leaders at this week's European Union
summit to quickly ratify the treaty, adding to the obstacles to
implementing the tattered charter.
Its rejection by Irish voters last week has emboldened
eurosceptic members of the Topolanek's ruling Czech Civic
Democrat party.
They are backed by President Vaclav Klaus, an opponent of
further EU integration, who says the treaty is not merely
wounded but dead.
Now the party will not commit itself to ratifying it and
there is no clear way to get it through parliament. The treaty
must be approved by both houses, and the increasingly hostile
Civic Democrats have a majority in the upper house, the Senate.
"It is improbable that the Lisbon Treaty will go through,"
said political analyst Petr Just of Prague's Charles University.
But he added that Topolanek would refrain from echoing Klaus
and declaring it dead outright, to avoid burning bridges with
European partners ahead of the Czech EU presidency in the first
half of 2009.
In Brussels, expectations of Czech cooperation are high.
"The Czechs will be holding the EU presidency from January
2009 and that means they will have a special responsibility and
I expect the Czech Republic to make a special contribution,"
European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering said.
The treaty, meant to replace a previous failed attempt at
institutional reform, would limit individual nations' voting
powers and give the EU a long-term president and a foreign
minister. All 27 EU nations must approve the pact for it to take
effect.
Klaus, founder of the Civic Democrats and an outspoken
critic of the EU who opposes giving more power to Brussels, has
been quick to rule the treaty beyond salvation.
"Patients should be resuscitated, not treaties," he said on
Wednesday.
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Klaus does not have many day-to-day powers, but his duties
include signing international treaties so his voice carries
weight.
And he has many followers in the party, including in the
upper house. The head of the Senate, Premysl Sobotka, has
already said ratification no longer makes sense.
The upper house has already interrupted the process. In
April it referred the treaty to the constitutional court to
assess whether it was in line with the constitution. A ruling is
not expected until around September.
That is convenient for Topolanek, allowing him to say there
is no rush and that Czech ratification is on ice anyway.
"Regardless of whether the ratification process continues or
not, the Lisbon Treaty will not go into force (yet)," Topolanek
said. "We have time for debate at home and in the EU."
Topolanek is likely to maintain a cautious line at the
summit, said Vaclav Nekvapil, an analyst at the Association for
International Affairs.
"The EU can convince Topolanek not to repeat the Klaus line,
so he does not say outright it is dead. France would win time to
speak to other countries," he said.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
