Word: czech
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...settle it: "We have asked Russia and Ukraine to do everything they can to avoid such crises. It would not be good for the overall climate of relations if such a crisis happened again." Barroso was part of a delegation that included E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Czech President Vaclav Klaus, whose country holds the E.U. presidency. (Read: "Vaclav Klaus: "The Man with the E.U.'s Fate in His Hands...
...Czech government first submitted the treaty for ratification in parliament in January 2008, but its opponents, encouraged by euroskeptic Klaus, managed to put the painstakingly negotiated accord on the back burner for over a year. Finally, the Czech Senate was the last parliamentary chamber in the E.U. to approve the treaty on May 6, passing the hot potato onto the president, whose signature is required for ratification. Klaus, 67, opposes the treaty as a boon to the E.U.'s bigger members and a threat to his country's sovereignty, and he has since kept Europe on tenterhooks as it waits...
...into effect.) "The Lisbon Treaty is dead for the moment," Klaus said after the Senate vote. "Therefore, my decision on its ratification is not on the agenda for the time being." The president's followers in the Senate also plan to challenge the treaty in the Constitutional Court, the Czech Republic's highest court, and Klaus has said he won't make up his mind before the verdict...
Klaus, an economist by training, is a highly divisive veteran of Czech post-communist politics who had served as finance minister and prime minister before becoming president in 2003. He was re-elected to the five-year office last year. The Czech president is no stranger to controversy. A dogged critic of all things E.U., Klaus most recently likened the bloc to the Soviet Union. He is also a rare yet prominent global warming doubter - he does not believe that climate change is caused by man and has called costly measures to curb it a waste. (See pictures of Victory...
...sign that he may not intend to kill the reform pact outright, Klaus gave up a chance to chair the E.U.'s June summit in Brussels, at which E.U. leaders plan to appease Irish voters before Ireland holds its new referendum. (The summit will instead be chaired by new Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer, who supports the treaty...