FOR years he has been one of the European Union's most vocal critics – now for like-minded Eurosceptics across the Continent, Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, has become their last chance to block the Lisbon Treaty.
Describing it as a "fatal restriction on national sovereignty that would lead to the creation of a European superstate", Mr Klaus has said he is in no hurry to ratify the treaty, despite it receiving the support of both houses of the Czech parliamen
t.
This has infuriated the government, which has backed the treaty. Jan Fischer, the prime minister, yesterday told the head of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, that he remained fully and deeply convinced there is no reason for anxiety in Europe.
But Mr Fischer added that, while he was confident that Mr Klaus would sign up to the treaty eventually, he could offer no real assurances to European leaders.
In an effort to calm fears in Brussels, Jerzy Buzek, the head of the European Parliament, said after talks with Mr Fischer: "We should not press too much on the Czech Republic. We expect the ratification, but it is an independent decision of the country."
But, if not anxious, European elders are getting impatient.
Brussels officials point out that to get the treaty – which requires the ratification of all 27 EU members – absorbed into the legal and institutional framework of the EU requires a huge amount of work, and much of this is now delayed.
Mr Klaus can take some solace in the fact that, for the moment, pressure to ratify the treaty is not solely on him. The Czech constitutional court is now deliberating whether the treaty is compatible with the country's constitution, after a group of senators loyal to Mr Klaus submitted a formal complaint against it.
Few expect the court to strike the treaty down, and thus the weight of European expectation will eventually return to the 67-year-old Czech president.
But for the moment, he has one ally, in the form of the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski.
A fellow Eurosceptic, the Polish leader has so far failed to sign the treaty, making Poland and the Czech Republic the only nations in the EU still to ratify it.
However, unlike his Czech counterpart, Mr Kaczynski has supported the treaty and pledged to put his signature to it if the Irish voted in its favour.
In contrast, Mr Klaus has criticised the treaty as undemocratic and claimed that, by giving more power to the European Parliament, it would contribute to the strengthening of a political system similar to the totalitarian structure that once controlled countries across central Europe.
"Not so long ago," he said in an address to the European parliament, "in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives and therefore also no parliamentary opposition. We learned the bitter lesson that with no opposition there is no freedom."
However, Mr Klaus's procrastination has thrown a lifeline to plans by David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if he wins next year's UK general election.
Mr Cameron has said he would put the treaty to a national vote if it remains unratified.
