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After months of fierce opposition, Czech President Václav Klaus on Tuesday gave in to mounting pressure and signed the Lisbon treaty, just hours after the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that it was fully in line with Czech law. His signature concludes the treaty’s full ratification by the EU, opening the way to extensive reforms within the 27-member alliance.

After months of fierce opposition to the Lisbon treaty Czech President Václav Klaus has finally expressed readiness to sign the EUs reform document. In a statement issued shortly after EU leaders granted the Czech Republic an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental rights on Friday Mr. Klaus said he would raise no further conditions for the document’s ratification. So is the way now clear for Lisbon?

In related news, the Social Democrats have said they will push for a “narrowing” of the Czech Republic’s opt-out to the Charter of Fundamental Rights if they win the general election next year. On Friday, party leader Jiří Paroubek slammed the government for agreeing to the opt-out, saying the agreement should have applied only to the country’s Beneš decrees. The historic decrees sanctioned the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czech soil after World War II, and allowed for the confiscation of property. The government said on Friday that the opt-out, pursued by the country’s president to block property rights claims by Sudeten Germans, would not put Czechs at a disadvantage. The government also stressed that anything other than a general wording in the concession to the Czech Republic would have buried the Lisbon treaty.

The British newspaper The Guardian has reported that European leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy were “incensed” over a letter the head of the British Conservative Party David Cameron sent to Czech President Václav Klaus. The move, taken in September, was seen as a clear attempt to delay and help scupper the EU’s Lisbon treaty. The criticism by the EU leaders, the daily reported, came to a head at the EU summit in Brussels.

The Czech President Václav Klaus said on Friday he would raise no further conditions for the treaty’s ratification, after the EU granted the Czech Republic an opt-out on the treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. The move means Mr Klaus could sign after the Czech Constitutional Court issues a ruling on a final complaint next week. The British Conservative Party itself is now moving away from earlier plans to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, The Guardian reported. The Czech Republic is the only country remaining to ratify the document, which reforms the running of the 27-member bloc.

Czech President Václav Klaus said on Friday he was pleased with the wording agreed by European Union leaders on an opt-out clause in the bloc's reform treaty and would raise no further conditions for ratification. Under Czech law the president must now wait for a Czech Constitutional Court ruling on a challenge against the treaty raised by a group of right-wing senators. The verdict is expected on Tuesday, and most lawyers expect the court to say the charter does not conflict with the Czech Constitution. It threw out a similar challenge by the same group of senators last year.

The Czech government has issued a statement saying that the opt-out from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights granted to the Czech Republic by EU leaders on Thursday will not put Czech citizens at a disadvantage or in any way put their rights at risk. The statement comes in response to suggestions that the opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights demanded by President Vaclav Klaus would in future prevent Czech citizens from defending their rights in European courts of law.

The opt-out, similar to those granted to Britain and Poland, was approved as a last-minute concession to Czech President Václav Klaus who refused to sign the Lisbon treaty without guarantees that it would not allow ethnic Germans forced out of the former Czechoslovakia after World War II to reclaim their property. The president says he is satisfied with the arrangement but there have been mixed reactions from the country’s political parties.

The Lisbon treaty is a hair’s breadth away from ratification after EU leaders on Thursday agreed on an opt-out for the Czech Republic to the treaty’s charter of fundamental rights. Czech President Václav Klaus, the document’s most vocal opponent, had made clear he would only sign if such a guarantee was provided.

Czech breweries have said they are preparing a complaint to the country’s constitutional court over a planned increase of duty on beer. Duty on half a litre of beer should rise by half a crown from January as part of the government’s package to curb the 2010 budget. The deputy head of the Czech Beer and Malt Association, Jiří Fusek, said the rise threatened the existence of some companies which is some cases would have to bear the brunt of the increase because of fixed long-term contracts with suppliers. He said brewers would turn to the European Union and Brussels if they failed in their legal fight at home.

Another issue for the Czech Republic at the summit is a deal framing future EU supervision of the financial sector. The Czech National Bank earlier this year came out against draft plans for this new supervision saying they were muddled and infringed on national regulation. The new rules are aimed at preventing a repeat of the financial meltdown that led to the world economic crisis. The Czech government has warned that it is prepared to fight on this issue. It said on Wednesday that its priority is for a high quality rather than a quick deal on financial regulation.

EU leaders started a two-day summit meeting in Brussels on Thursday. One of the major tasks facing them is to discuss a last minute demand for an exemption from part of the EU’s reforming Lisbon treaty sought by Czech President Václav Klaus. President Klaus wants firm guarantees that the treaty can not be used by Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II to reclaim property. Diplomatic sources told the Czech News Agency that a deal on the exemption should be thrashed out on Thursday evening. But Hungary, which has opposed the exemption, says it will decide on its final stance during the summit.

The Czech Republic is the last of the EU’s 27 to ratify the Lisbon treaty which should take effect at the start of next year. Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said on Wednesday that President Klaus had given guarantees he will not erect new barriers to ratification if his exemption is delivered and the country’s highest court gives it the all clear. The Czech Constitutional Court is expected to rule on Tuesday over a complaint about whether the Lisbon treaty is in conformity with Czech law.