Klaus relents, EU victorious, page 1

The last man resisting the European Union’s Lisbon treaty indicated yesterday that he was ready to relent, admitting that he could not stall long enough to give David Cameron the chance to call a British referendum.

The Lisbon Treaty creates the new jobs of European Union Foreign Minister and President of the European Council, for which Tony Blair is considered a leading candidate.

so it seems that the "last man standing" between the formation of the EU is caving in sort of speak and is expected to sign the treaty before the british elections... czech president vaclav klaus who has held up the lisbon treaty is now expected to sign it.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

the lisbon treaty:

Prominent changes include more qualified majority voting in the Council of Ministers, increased involvement of the European Parliament in the legislative process through extended codecision with the Council of Ministers, eliminating the pillar system, preventing the provision in the Treaty of Nice (2001) reducing the number of commissioners, and the creation of a President of the European Council with a term of two and half years and a High Representative for Foreign Affairs to present a united position on EU policies. If ratified, the Treaty of Lisbon would also make the Union's human rights charter, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, legally binding.

The stated aim of the treaty is "to complete the process started by the Treaty of Amsterdam [1997] and by the Treaty of Nice with a view to enhancing the efficiency and democratic legitimacy of the Union and to improving the coherence of its action."[2] Opponents of the Treaty of Lisbon, such as the British think-tank Open Europe and former Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde, argue that it will centralise the EU,[3] and weaken democracy by moving power away from national electorates

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