EU's Lisbon Treaty likely to enter into force December 1: Sarkozy
(BRUSSELS) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that the Lisbon Treaty, enabling the European Union to choose a president and raise its global voice, will "doubtless" come into force on December 1.
"The Lisbon Treaty will enter into force doubtless as early as December 1," Sarkozy told reporters at the end of an EU summit in Brussels.
Sarkozy added there could be another summit "in mid-November, perhaps to debate nominations" for two top jobs created by the treaty, the other being the job of foreign affairs supremo.
EU leaders on Thursday approved a proposal to satisfy a last-minute demand by Czech President Vaclav Klaus for his country to win an opt-out from the EU's charter of fundamental rights, incorporated into the treaty.
Klaus angered his EU partners when he sought the exemption three weeks ago, after Prague's parliament had already ratified the treaty, in what his critics took as a fresh attempt to delay its adoption.
The move -- which sees Prague win similar opt-out rights as Britain and Poland -- was to ensure ethnic Germans forced out of the former Czechoslovakia after World War II for Nazi collaboration could not reclaim their property, regardless of their political stance during the Nazi occupation.
The last technical obstacle remains a court appeal against the treaty by a group of Czech parliamentarians, many from the party Klaus founded. The Czech Constitutional Court is set to rule on it on Tuesday.
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