Geoff Hoon in Prague

On a visit to the Czech Republic, Britain's Secretary for Europe Geoff Hoon said the EU Constitution should better reflect the needs of EU citizens. Following talks with the Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, Mr. Hoon said it was important to think about why Holland and France had rejected the treaty. The Czech Republic and Britain, along with five other EU states, halted efforts to ratify the treaty after the Dutch and French votes, and have called for the document to be simplified and made more transparent. However the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek assured officials in Brussels on Monday that the Czech Republic would not try to block a "reduced" version of the EU treaty.