Will he won't he

Czech President Vaclav Klaus is causing a real storm over in Brussels with his refusal to sign the Lisbon Treaty. Having previously suggested that his signature would follow the outcome of the new constitutional court challenge filed by a group of Senators, now even that is not guaranteed, as he seeks some kind of 'opt-out' from the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

It's clear the guy is not going to be pushed around by the likes of Barroso, Sarkozy and Merkel, who are all lining up to pressure him into signing the Treaty as soon as possible. He has already managed to delay the appointment of the new EU President and EU Foreign Minister - originally expected at the end of this month, but which will will now apparently take place at the following EU summit in December.

However, it is impossible to tell just how far Klaus is willing to go to scupper this Treaty by delaying long enough to let the Conservatives get elected in Britain and then hold the long overdue referendum.

On the one hand, according to the Times this morning, Klaus has told supporters he will "never" sign the Lisbon Treaty. And his spokesman has indicated that he will not be happy with a fudge on the Charter, wanting instead to re-open ratification in all the other EU countries in order to agree a legally-binding protocol. Anything short of this will after all be pretty meaningless - EU governments will be able to agree relatively easily to a written declaration much like the ones offered to Ireland in return for holding a second referendum on the Treaty.

Spokesman Ladislav Jakl told Czech newspaper Lidov Noviny: "the guarantees given to Ireland are not guarantees; they were a political declaration in a style such that the Irish wolf filled its stomach and the Lisbon goat remained whole".

On the other hand, it would be naive to believe even for a minute that the other EU leaders will allow Klaus to get anywhere close to scuppering the thing they have been obsessing over non-stop for the vast majority of the past decade. As reported in the Sunday Times, France and Germany would get Klaus ousted before they considered such defeat (cue image of Klaus-shaped figure being bungled into the back of a car with blacked out windows...)

Barroso has today made crystal clear that any re-opening of the Treaty to allow for any actual or meaningful changes is absolutely and completely out of the question - "surreal", he said. They refused to do it for Ireland, so why should the Czechs be any different? They will have to make do with a written declaration.

Whether or not this will be enough to appease President Klaus is at this moment anyone's guess. Under immense pressure not just within the EU but also from his own government and parliament, it will take a heroic effort of historic proportions to stick to his guns on this one - and he has our full support.

Guns out?

This just in from Le Figaro:

It seems outspoken Czech President Vaclav Klaus has had a dig at Sarko's hunger for power during a debate in Paris.

Following on from tensions between the two countries over Sarkozy's apparent call to protectionism in a speech last week, Klaus said of Sarko: "I know he'd like to remain a permanent president" of the EU, adding, apparently sarcastically, "It is very human." He also said that to have a good European presidency "It's not necessary to be hyper-active and to organise a European summit every weekend."

The upcoming summit that the Czechs are organising will be very interesting. According to the BBC's Mark Mardell, an insider has said "essentially it's to tell Sarkozy to shut up". And the Independent reports that the Czech PM yesterday referred to the summit as a "shoot-out", saying, "If the result of our shootout is an agreement... that we will not be using this type of media competition and that we will halt protectionism, then this shootout will have served its purpose."

Despite all this Klaus said this morning in Paris that he "didn't see tensions between the two countries", and blamed the Franco-Czech spat on "some politicians and journalists who want to create tensions just for a political game."

Sure.

Oops

According to Europolitics, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek has let slip to the European Parliament that he thinks the Lisbon Treaty is "worse" than the Nice Treaty.

This is the man, don't forget, who is pushing for ratification of the Treaty, while the Czech President opposes it.

He said:

"Personally, I find that it is a bit worse than the Nice Treaty", but "I negotiated this text on behalf of the Czech Republic, we approved it, I signed it and I will vote for it; however, the fact of telling all member states that they are obliged to ratify a document and that they do not have the right to decide for themselves is quite absurd".

He added: "if a referendum were to take place in the Czech Republic, according to all indications, it would also not pass".

Eurpolitics writes: "Later, having understood that he had gone too far, the EU's president in office explained that he was just kidding at that he just wanted to say that this treaty 'should not be forced upon the Union'."

He said: "There was some very harsh criticism of Václav Klaus, but I am proud of him, he is the icon of the economic transformation of our country. If the EU loses its capacity to hold a civilised political debate, if we no longer have the capacity to freely express our opinions, this will no longer be the Europe that I am fond of".

UK Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson responded saying: "Europeans are your friends, if Václav Klaus compares the EU to the Soviet Union, we should not be concerned by it".

How to fill the blank?

The Czech Presidency has unveiled a sculpture it commissioned to stand outside the Council building in Brussels. The installation piece is designed to represent cliches and stereotypes of member states in a welcome attempt to subvert the usual attempts at political correctness. Eg France is shown as the national map with the word "strike" draped over it, while Italy is shown by its football team. There is a blank space reserved for the UK, to represent its 'absence' from all things EU.

Others are more controversial, with Bulgaria represented by a large toilet, and Poland shown by priests raising in the rainbow flag in the same image of American soldiers planting the flag on Iwo Jima in WWII.

EU officials have been complaining that the piece have "does not seem to have been properly discussed in the appropriate forum." Tough luck - the Czechs are in charge now for six months. It hasn't been funded by taxpayers, so what's the problem?

Perhaps it's the fact that the installation dares to draw on national stereotypes, rather than a European theme.

After all, the Commission saw nothing wrong at all with its (taxpayer-funded) promotional film, posted on EU tube, called "Let's come together", which featured people having sex for three minutes. In fact, the EU Commissioner for Communication, Margot Wallstrom was very dismissive of complaints that it had caused offence. (For details of this and other EU communications projects click here to read Open Europe's report on EU propaganda.)

Controversy, it seems, is fine, as long as it is strictly EU-themed - not to mention carefully controlled.

In the spirit of the piece, we would like to invite suggestions for what Britain might have been represented with, should the blank space have been replaced? A gang of rowdy bingedrinkers, perhaps ??

Other suggestions encouraged...