European Union admits fresh treaty problem after Ireland

“The European Council noted that the Czech Republic cannot complete the ratification process until the constitutional court delivers its positive opinion on the accordance of the Lisbon Treaty with the Czech constitutional order,” the leaders said in a footnote to their final statement at a two-day summit.

Most leaders sought to put a positive spin on the message, noting that ratification of the treaty by other countries would continue and they would review the way forward together with Ireland at their next summit in October.

“I’m convinced our agreement gives a very positive impulse towards the final solution,” Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, who chaired the summit, told a closing news conference.

The treaty is designed to give the bloc stronger leadership and institutions to cope with recent and future enlargement.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he expected all the other 26 member states to ratify the text and Ireland to come back to its partners with ideas for the way forward in October.

Traditionally Eurosceptical Britain raised EU spirits this week by concluding parliamentary ratification, but a high court judge advised Brown on Friday not to complete the process until he had ruled on a civil suit demanding a referendum.

But French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who inherits the issue when France takes on the rotating EU presidency on July 1 and will visit Dublin next month, pointed to the risk of contagion.

“Ireland is a problem. But if we had a second or a third problem, it would become very difficult to solve,” he told a news conference.

“A renegotiation of the treaty is out of the question. We are not going to redo a second simplified treaty,” he said, noting the Lisbon treaty was itself a boiled-down version of the EU constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

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