You could almost hear the groans in Dublin, where the Irish are now the lone hold-outs in approving the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, after the Czech Republic – whose president disdains the EU even though his country holds the rotating presidency until July 1 – finally approved ratification of the document.

The Czech parliament’s upper house approved the treaty 54-20, with six votes to spare. Three-fifths of senators present, or 48 from the 79 in attendance, were needed for the treaty to pass. Five abstained and two were not present. While the bicameral Czech parliament finished voting on the accord, the ratification requires the signature by President Vaclav Klaus, a treaty opponent who has no deadline to ink the document. “I expect further obstructions...under the thumb of Vaclav Klaus,” said outgoing Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, a reluctant treaty backer, for whom the vote amounted to a triumphant farewell two days before his cabinet’s departure.

The process is likely to be further dragged out by the Eurosceptic president’s followers in the Senate who plan to have the pact reviewed for the second time in the Constitutional Court. The anti-Lisbon senators need to collect 17 signatures to initiate the probe. Klaus said that if they succeed he would not make up his mind before the court’s ruling. He also hinted that he would not sign the pact before Ireland reverses its rejection of the treaty in a June 2008 referendum.

“The Lisbon Treaty is dead for the moment. It is dead because one member state of the European Union turned it down in a referendum,” Klaus told reporters after the vote. “Therefore, my decision on its ratification is not on the agenda for the time being.” Irish voters stunned a complacent EU last year when they rejected the treaty, although no EU officials – including Ireland’s European Commissioner Charlie McCreevey campaigned for it and opponents jumped on the chance to defeat it in a vacuum of support. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who was caught by surprise when Ireland nixed the treaty, said the vote in the Czech Republic was “very good news” for the bloc.

“This vote reflects the Czech Republic’s commitment to a more democratic, accountable, effective and coherent EU,” he said in a statement, without talking to reporters directly. After debate lasting much of the day, the Senate passed the treaty 54-20 in a triumphant farewell for Topolanek, a reluctant supporter of the pact, whose cabinet quit at the end of the week.

Besides Klaus’ roadblock, It could be further dragged out by his followers in the Senate, who hope to put it to a court review. Even if Klaus does sign the ratification instrument, the treaty will not come into force unless Irish voters approve it in a referendum in the autumn, having rejected it in a vote in June of 2008.

In a reference to those problems, Barroso urged the member states who have not yet ratified the treaty to finish the “remaining constitutional requirements ... as fast as possible.” The treaty is intended to make the EU’s decisionmaking more efficient following its expansion from 15 to 27 members between 2004 and 2007. But it’s been a long road for the EU to try to get some sort of a constitution, after an earlier proposal was rejected in France and the Netherlands four years ago and the EU has strived to find some kind of acceptable patchwork quilt since then, but Eurosceptics maintain the treaty is the same as the defeated constitution with barelychanged pretty language. Last year, a major opponent emerged in Ireland’s Declan Ganley, who rallied opponents enough to defeat the treaty, although the EU is insisting the Irish vote again, although Ganley is mustering candidates to run in the EU elections in June to defeat treaty supporters on his admittedly anti-EU stance.