Czech president Klaus says he will not sign Lisbon treaty. The Times reports: Asked during a walkabout on Sunday not to put his name to the treaty, Mr Klaus replied: “Don’t worry, I won’t.”
However, the Czech caretaker government is trying to find a solution. Prime Minister Fischer said he hoped that the treaty could still be concluded by the end of the year. And Klaus himself actually had said, after the Irish vote, that it would be “too late” now to stop Lisbon.
Optimists were hoping that Klaus would sign quickly after the Irish vote, so that European leaders could go ahead at their Brussels summit end of October with choosing the future Council President and the High Representative for foreign policy. But now it seems that they will be busy dealing with the Czech President’s attempts to delay or block ratification of the Lisbon treaty.
Paris nervous about how US is handling Iran. According to IHT columnist John Vinocur, Paris is nervous about how Washington is dealing with Iran’s nuclear program. France’s nuclear nonproliferation experts think that the US is “behaving weakly, indecisively, or perhaps deceptively in inadequately trying to stop Iran’s rush toward a nuclear weapon.” “They suggest the Americans are selling likely Iranian trickery as hopeful signs, and toying with potential agreements with the mullahs that resemble the American concessions on North Korea which have led only to its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.” “Their warnings can be blunt: that the United Sates is playing a flabby, losing game against Iran; and even that it’s failed to arouse any nervousness in Tehran that the Americans would eventually dare acknowledge the failure of current negotiations, or subsequent sanctions, and consider a military strike on Iranian nuclear installations.” At the same time, Britain steps up pressure on Iran with a trading ban on big companies, the Times reports.
Even with the Lisbon treaty in force, the EU will not speak with one voice. Karen E. Smith, an expert on EU foreign policy at the LSE, writes on Global Europe about the position of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy: “The Lisbon Treaty no more creates a ‘single voice’ for the Union than the Amsterdam Treaty did when it created Javier Solana’s post. ” Read the piece here: A committee chairman. Charismatic or not, the EU’s future High Representative is likely to have a very limited role.
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