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A pig-slaughter feast -for some an inconceivable cruelty that has no place in the 21st century, for others a way of life and an old tradition. Only last week it seemed that home pig slaughters could be on their way out, but after much debate and pressure from individual EU members officials in Brussels have given them the green light.

The Euro Health Consumer Index has ranked the Czech health care system 13th out of 32 European states compared, giving the country a rating of “solid average”. The consumer index, now in its fifth year, rates six areas of health care, from the information available to patients and the scope of services to the length of waiting lists for certain operations. The report suggested that the Czech Republic review the funding ratio for health care workers versus technology and medicines. The Czech Republic held the 16th rung on the list in 2008, and now ranks between Estonia and Ireland. The Netherlands and Austria received the best ratings in Europe, while Macedonia and Latvia were the lowest.

Czech President Václav Klaus has reacted to reports that he has been in negotiation with leader of the British Conservatives, David Cameron, about joint action which could scupper ratification of the EU’s Lisbon treaty. On Wednesday, British paper The Daily Mail reported that Mr Cameron had written to the Czech president asking him indirectly to postpone signing the EU reform document until after UK elections next year, following which the Conservatives have pledged to hold a referendum on the treaty. On Wednesday, the vehemently eurosceptic Mr Klaus confirmed that he had received a ‘purely personal’ letter from Mr Cameron in July, though the Czech president added that it would not influence his steps. Mr Klaus said he took the letter from the Conservative leader as proof the British Conservatives were ‘serious’ in their opposition to Lisbon. Mr Klaus has previously said that he wants to be the last head of state to put his signature to the document in Europe.

The British newspaper the Daily Mail reported Wednesday that British Conservative leader David Cameron indirectly asked Czech President Václav Klaus to delay ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Citing unnamed sources close to Mr Cameron, the paper says that the Tory leader wrote the president last month in hopes that a long-enough delay on the Czech side would allow the Conservatives to put the treaty to a referendum in Britain if the party wins the spring elections as currently expected. Under such circumstances the pan-EU treaty would face yet another major hurdle, as most pundits fear it would be rejected in a British poll. Mr Klaus has promised to be the very last to sign the Lisbon Treaty even if it is ratified everywhere else; and a group of right-wing senators are preparing to file a complaint against the treaty with the Czech Constitutional Court, which may postpone the process of ratification for up to nine months. The other countries yet to fully ratify the Lisbon Treaty – Ireland, Germany and Poland - are expected to do so in the coming months; the fact that the Czech Republic is behind in the process has sparked criticism from Brussels.

With Ireland expected to approve the Lisbon treaty in a repeat referendum next week, eurosceptics in the EU are now pinning their hopes on Czech President Václav Klaus, who is fiercely opposed to Lisbon. On Wednesday the Daily Mail reported that the leader of Britain’s Conservatives David Cameron had sent President Klaus a letter assuring him that if he holds up the treaty’s ratification until May of next year – when the Tories expect to come to power – then Mr. Cameron will hold a referendum on the treaty in a last-ditch attempt to scupper

The British daily Telegraph reports that the constitutional complaint brought against the Lisbon Treaty by a group of Czech senators may allow British conservatives the time to hold a referendum. Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer has reportedly warned EU leaders in private that the challenge could create a long delay for the treaty’s ratification in the Czech Republic. Should that delay outlast the current British government, and the British Conservative Party win elections tentatively planned for May, ratification of the Lisbon Treaty would face yet another major hurdle, as the Conservatives have pledged to put the treaty to a public vote. The other countries yet to pass the Lisbon Treaty – Ireland, Germany and Poland - are expected to do so in the coming months; the fact that the Czech Republic is behind in the process has been a major issue in the country’s EU relations.

Czech President Václav Klaus on Tuesday told the American newspaper Washington Post that he sees the European Union as a greater threat than Russia. Currently in New York for a summit on climate change, Mr Klaus said that while Russia today plays nothing like the role in daily Czech affairs that the Soviet Union did, the EU threatens the ability of the Czech Republic to maintain its identity as a state. This, the president said, was the rationale for his opposition to the Lisbon Treaty, among other integrative processes. The president also criticised the “frustrating” amount of regulation in the Czech Republic at present, saying it was greater now than it had been 20 years ago prior to the fall of communism. The political system in Russia, he said, and freedom in general is currently at its highest point “in the last two millennia”.

If Canada does not abolish visas for Czech citizen by the end of the year, Brussels might retaliate by introducing visas for Canadian diplomats travelling to the EU. That’s the promise Czechs received on Monday after an informal meeting of EU interior ministers. Ottawa re-introduced visas for Czech citizens in July due to an increasing numbers of Czech Romanies seeking asylum in Canada and ever since the Czech authorities have been pushing to get the decision reversed. But some say the Czech Republic should deal with the problems that are making

A group of Czech right-wing senators has announced it will file a second complaint on the Lisbon Treaty. Civic Democrat Senator Jiří Oberfalzer said the group would again petition the Constitutional Court to examine the treaty’s compatibility with Czech law on September 28. The move, which precedes a key Irish repeat referendum in October, could end up further delaying overall ratification by up to six months.

At a press briefing in Brussels on Thursday night Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico warned Prague it was undermining its position in the EU by delaying the ratification of the Lisbon treaty. Following a summit of EU leaders on Thursday, Mr. Fico said he had heard a number of very strong statements on the subject by prime ministers of leading EU member states. The Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, later confirmed that there was increasing concern in Brussels on the subject, and that EU leaders were now more worried about the Eurosceptic Czech president signing the treaty that they were about the outcome of the Irish referendum.

The Lisbon treaty has been ratified by both houses of the Czech Parliament, but President Václav Klaus has made it clear he will delay signing it for as long as possible.