CZECH President Vaclav Klaus will sign the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty most probably by the end of the year, Czech premier Jan Fischer said on 7 October. “There is no reason for anxiety in Europe. In the Czech Republic, the question is not ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, it is when,” Fischer told journalists in Brussels and Prague. “I believe that everything is in place for the ratification to be completed at the end of this year.”
Both houses of the Czech parliament approved the treaty in the spring, but  Klaus initially refused to sign it. The document is currently facing a challenge in the Czech Constitutional Court, which has pledged to deal with it as soon as possible. Once the court’s work is done, “from all the signals I have at my disposal, I analyse that there will be no reason for the president to delay his signature,” Fischer said.
Fischer was talking after a video conference with the leaders of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Swedish government, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency. He had been set to come to Brussels in person, but was stranded in Prague by aircraft problems.