At the end of a two day summit in Brussels the EU faces further obstacles to salvage the Lisbon treaty. In the wake of Ireland’s NO, leaders have admitted the Czech Republic may not be able to ratify the treaty because of legal difficulties. With other leaders insisting ratification will continue Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said his country would study weather the treaty was in line with its constitution. ‘‘I can’t really guess and I don’t think anybody can make any estimates on what the outcome of the ratification will be. At this moment we are actually deciding on how the ratification process will proceed. I really can’t give you any idea about the outcome, because you are asking me about something I can’t really influence’‘ The EU faces months of uncertainty over a treaty designed to reform Europe’s institutional framework and enable recent and future enlargement. Speaking in Brussels, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the UK could not fully ratify until a court ruled on a legal challenge. “The judge has now replied that he expects to give his judgement next week and of course that fits in with our timetable where, having had the royal assent we have to go through all the different procedures before ratification and so ratification will not take place until after we have had the judgement from the judge.” Latest research suggests only 3 percent of the UK population still favour ratification in the wake of the Irish no vote.

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