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The Czech government met to debate the country’s position and review its mandate ahead of an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday. The Czech Republic will be the only remaining EU member not to have concluded ratification of the Lisbon treaty and EU leaders are expected to decide whether or not to give the Czech Republic an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, as requested by President Klaus. There have been indications that the EU might be willing to consider this option in return for a guarantee that the Eurosceptic Czech president would then sign the treaty without further delay, but not all EU members are in favor of such a move.

Matters have been further complicated by the fact that the Czech Constitutional Court on Tuesday postponed by a week a final verdict on whether the EU’s Lisbon treaty is in line with Czech law.

The Czech Association of Freedom Fighters has come out strongly in support of President Klaus’ demand for an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights attached to the Lisbon treaty. The association’s chairwoman Anděla Dvořáková warned against the growing influence of Sudeten Germans in the border regions, saying that the Czech president was right to be concerned about potential property law-suits. Ms Dvořáková said the president was to be thanked for defending the country’s interests and slammed the former government for not doing its job properly.

Former Czech president Václav Havel will open the plenary session of the European Parliament on November 11, with a speech on the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe, EP President Jerzy Buzek’s spokeswoman Inga Rosinska told the ctk news agency on Wednesday. In a symbolic gesture MEPs have also invited a group of 89 young people –all born in 1989 – to the plenary session. The event is to be accompanied by an exhibition of photographs documenting the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.

Prime Minister Jan Fischer told journalists in Prague on Wednesday that President Klaus had assured him in person he would sign the Lisbon treaty if the Constitutional Court ruled it was in line with Czech law and if the Czech Republic was granted an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights attached to the treaty. The opt-out is to ensure that Germans expelled from former Czechoslovakia after WWII cannot seek to reclaim their property in European courts. Mr. Fischer said that the president has assured him he would have no other conditions and would not further delay the treaty’s ratification.

At a gathering of foreign diplomats held on occasion of the anniversary, President Václav Klaus said that after twenty years of democracy the Czech Republic faced a tough decision –whether to give up part of its sovereignty to European institutions. President Klaus said that while he was strongly opposed to the Lisbon treaty he was aware of the political reality of the present day and the fact that the Czech Republic did not exist in a vacuum. He also explained why he had asked for an opt-out so late, saying that until Ireland’s repeat referendum he had not considered it relevant.

Some 200 opponents of the Lisbon treaty used the day of Czech statehood to voice their opposition to the country’s foreign policy course, claiming that by ratifying the document the country was handing over its independence and sovereignty to Brussels. The protesters marched through the city centre brandishing slogans such as “We don’t want Lisbon”, “We don’t want Brussels” and “Lisbon is Munich”. There we shouts of “long live President Klaus” and “don’t give in –we are with you ”.

The Constitutional Court has postponed a final verdict on whether the EU’s Lisbon treaty is in line with Czech law until next Tuesday. The court held a public hearing on the matter on Tuesday, in response to a petition filed a month ago by a group of senators loyal to the Eurosceptic Czech president, Václav Klaus. They say Lisbon would threaten Czech sovereignty.

The Czech Republic is the only state in the EU not to have completed ratification of the Lisbon treaty. If the Constitutional Court gives it the green light, President Klaus would be obliged to put his signature to ratification. However, Mr Klaus is demanding that the Czech Republic receive an opt-out from Lisbon’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. He says that otherwise Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after Word War II could seek to reclaim property.

The Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, is hoping to secure a deal with EU leaders in Brussels later this week under which the opt-out would be granted, if Mr Klaus promises to sign Lisbon. The president’s office said on Tuesday that his chancellor Jiří Weigl would be in the Czech delegation at the summit.

European leaders on Tuesday were focussed on events at a courtroom in the Czech Republic’s second city Brno. The country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, is meeting there over a complaint that the EU’s reforming Lisbon treaty is in conflict with national law. Chris Johnstone has been following events in the courtroom. We asked him why the complaint is so important.

Kenneth Clarke, a highly-placed member of Great Britain’s Conservative Party as well as that party’s shadow finance minister, has criticised Czech President Václav Klaus over his reasoning on the Lisbon treaty. In the Sunday edition of The Times Mr Clarke said that the president’s assessment that the treaty could lead to property restitution claims by ethnic Germans - expelled from Czech soil after World War II - were “the most ridiculous he had heard”. Václav Klaus has demanded an exemption for the Czech Republic from the Charter of Fundamental Rights to address such concerns. Mr Klaus’s critics charge that the president, a strong opponent of “Lisbon”, has simply sought to delay ratification for as long as possible. In the past, the Conservative Party's head David Cameron said he would call a referendum on the Lisbon treaty if the issue had not been resolved by next year.

The Constitutional Court will hold a public hearing on Tuesday on the compatibility of the EU’s Lisbon treaty with the Czech constitution and Czech law. The court is addressing a complaint put forward by a group of right-wing senators last month. The senators have challenged that the treaty, which is aimed at reforming the running of the 27-member EU, will unduly limit Czech sovereignty through the transfer of power to Brussels. The Czech Republic is the only member country to not yet have ratified the document, although it was approved by both houses of Parliament. President Václav Klaus has conditioned his signing of the treaty to the country’s exemption from the Charter of Fundamental Rights (over fears the document could pave the way for property claims by the country’s former ethnic German minority, expelled after World War II). The Constitutional Court’s General Secretary Tomáš Langášek has said it is impossible to anticipate whether the court will issue a ruling on Tuesday or adjourn the ruling until a later date.