Social Democrat leader: country might lose EU commissioner if it fails to ratify Lisbon treaty by mid October

Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek told Czech TV on Sunday that the Czech Republic might lose its EU commissioner if it fails to ratify the Lisbon treaty by mid October. According to the Swedish presidency of the European Union, the new European Commission will be formed under the Nice treaty if the Lisbon treaty is not ratified by that time. Mr Paroubek called on the Civic Democrats to avoid further delays with the ratification of the reform document.

The Lisbon treaty was approved by both chambers of the Czech Parliament earlier this year. However, President Václav Klaus has refused to put his signature to it. He said he would wait for a group of Civic Democrat senators to petition the Constitutional Court to see whether the document is in line with Czech law. The senators said they would file the petition in early October.