House speaker: Senate likely to pass Lisbon treaty

The head of the Senate, Přemysl Sobotka, of the ruling Civic Democrats, said on Tuesday that the upper chamber of the Czech Parliament was likely to approve the Lisbon treaty. Mr Sobotka said a fresh assessment of the reform document by the Czech Constitutional Court would be pointless. The Senate is yet to vote on the Lisbon treaty which was approved by Parliament’s lower chamber earlier this month. The Czech Constitutional Court was asked to review parts of the treaty by some Civic Democratic senators last year; and ruled that it was in line with Czech law. A number of senators for the ruling party would however like to have it reviewed again.