No referendum to be held in EU after Irish yes to Lisbon

Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus today criticised the fact that the Irish had voted on the Lisbon treaty repeatedly and he said no referendum would be held in the EU after their yes.

“No referendum will be in the EU now,” Klaus told his supporters outside the Prague Castle, the presidential seat, today in reaction to the Irish approval of the treaty, which he refuses to sign.

Klaus told reporters later that the result of the Irish referendum was a fact that he would no longer comment but he would respect it.

“There is nothing to add to it,” he said.

Asked whether he will complete the ratification process by his signature, Klaus pointed out that the ratification process must not continue until the Constitutional Court’s decision whether the treaty is in compliance with the constitutional order.

The court is to examine the treaty on the basis of another complaint lodged by a group of senators, mainly from the Civic Democrats (ODS), this week.

The Czech Republic may be the last EU member state not to have completed the ratification.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who has not signed the treaty either, promised to do so immediately after the Irish “yes.”

Klaus today refused to say whether and when he would sign the treaty.

Participants in today’s march to Prague Castle to thank President Vaclav Klaus for his opposition to the Lisbon treaty carried Irish flags and banners reading “No to Lisbon.”

Klaus told them he “is in harmony” with their opinions.

The Irish approved the Lisbon treaty in a repeated referendum held on Friday after they rejected the document last June.

Klaus expressed the opinion that the referendum in Ireland would have been repeated if voters had said “no” to Lisbon so long until they said yes.

He compared a repeated referendum to a repeated football match.

source: ČeskéNoviny.cz

While the PM’s already pushing the EU bulldozer forward:

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer believes that the Lisbon treaty will be ratified in the Czech Republic soon so that it could come into force by the end of 2009, he said in a statement released by the Government Office today.

Still, for Klaus Lisbon Treaty is ‘not on the cards’.