The lesson of today is this: You can never be entirely certain that President
Klaus of the Czech Republic will sign the Lisbon Treaty until he actually does.

Yesterday the Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer and the Czech Europe Minister
Stefan Fule confidently predicted their president would sign the treaty by the
end of the year or even sooner.

Today the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who holds the EU presidency,
managed to get hold of the Czech president on the phone. He had been trying to
have the call since the Irish voted "Yes" last week. Vaclav Klaus told the
Swedish PM that he would abide by the ruling of the Czech Constitutional Court -
which has not come yet. Then he dropped his bombshell. He wanted a footnote
added to the treaty in relation to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

It is fair to say that no one knew about this condition, including ministers in
the Czech government. They certainly did not know about it in Brussels. And
President Klaus wants the European Council - the EU leaders - to take a decision
on the footnote.

Now we don't yet know what this footnote contains. It would need all 27
countries to agree to it. There could well be arguments over it that could
prolong the whole process. However it may be the president's escape clause, so
that he can demonstrate he got something out of Brussels.

But today's intervention will fuel unease that the Czech president is
unpredictable and that it is unwise of Europe to try and read his mind.

Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/2009/10/plotting_czechmate.h\
tml