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Current AffairsBarroso warns Fischer against “artificial obstacles” to Lisbon ratification, though satisfying latest Klaus demand could be tall order

The Czech prime minister was in Brussels on Tuesday for talks on his country’s stalled ratification of the EU’s Lisbon treaty. The European Commission president warned him against “artificial obstacles”, though it remains hard to see a way around the latest obstacle thrown up by the Czech president. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court has announced a public hearing on Lisbon in two weeks’ time. More

Current AffairsKlaus knows Sudeten German property issue “emotional”, says pundit Pehe

The Czech president, Václav Klaus, may have surprised everyone with his new condition for signing the Lisbon treaty, but here in the Czech Republic the argument that the treaty may undermine the country’s post-war Beneš decrees is not altogether new. Such rhetoric was used by several Eurosceptic parties in the run-up to this summer’s elections to the European Parliament. Many pundits agree that President Klaus has brought up a sensitive subject by suggesting Lisbon could open the door to German property claims. Earlier today, I spoke to political analyst Jiří Pehe to ask whether he believed Mr Klaus’s fears about Lisbon may be founded:  More

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Current AffairsCzech president’s position on Lisbon hard for Brussels to comprehend, says Czech Radio correspondent

If the Czech Constitutional Court finds that the EU’s Lisbon treaty is in line with Czech law, the country’s president, Václav Klaus, would have to sign ratification, bringing the document into effect for the whole of Europe. But on Friday Mr Klaus made international headlines when he said he would only do so on one condition: that a special guarantee is included, preventing any possible property claims from ethnic Germans expelled from Bohemia and Moravia after WWII. So, how is the rest of the EU reacting to this latest move on the part of the Eurosceptic Czech president? That’s a question Radio Prague put to Czech Radio’s correspondent in Brussels, Ondřej Houska.  More

NewsGerman-French diplomats raise possibility of President Klaus’ impeachment: paper