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The Czech presidency of the European Union has called off accession talks with Croatia scheduled for this coming Friday, due to Zagreb’s failure to resolve a border dispute with Slovenia, an EU member. The move is the latest blow to Croatia’s hopes of becoming the next state to join the bloc. Sweden said it had no plans to launch fresh efforts to settle the border dispute, which the EU sees as a bilateral issue, during its presidency.

The Lisbon treaty, a reform document which should reshape the working of the European Union, has to date been ratified by all but four countries of the 27-member block – Ireland, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. Now the Czech president, Václav Klaus, has said he will not make up his mind on whether to ratify the document until all other EU states have reached a decision.

Christian Democrat leader Cyril Svoboda has criticized plans to put off the nomination of a Czech EU commissioner until after the autumn general elections. In a statement for the ČTK news agency Mr. Svoboda said the Czechs were throwing away the chance to gain an interesting portfolio in the new EC because of political squabbles at home. Interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer has expressed readiness to start talks which would produce a widely acceptable candidate but the two strongest parties on the Czech political scene, the Civic and Social Democrats have made a deal to postpone the debate until after the general elections.

The Czech president, Václav Klaus, told Czech Radio on Tuesday that he would only make up his mind on whether or not he will ratify the Lisbon treaty after all other EU states have reached a decision. Mr Klaus, who is a staunch critic of the reform document, said he would wait for the result of the Irish referendum scheduled for October. He also said he would not decide before the Constitutional Courts in the Czech Republic and Germany reach their verdicts on the document, and he will also wait for the Polish position on the issue.

The Lisbon treaty was approved by both chambers of the Czech Parliament earlier this year but President Klaus refused to complete the ratification process. He said that putting his signature to the treaty would put Ireland under pressure to ratify the document.

On Monday, the Civic Democrats announced that they had formed a new ‘anti-federalist’ European Parliament bloc with the British Conservatives and Poland’s Law and Justice Party. Fans of the new European Conservatives and Reformists Group say that it will enhance democracy in Europe, while its detractors call it a motley mix of parties - some with views verging on the extreme. The Czech Civic Democrats are the third biggest party in the grouping, which consists of 55 MEPs from eight different European states. Adéla Kadlecová is the Civic Democrats’ foreign

The centre-right Civic Democrats have formed a new ‘anti-federalist’ European Parliament bloc with the British Conservatives and Poland’s Law and Justice Party, it was announced on Monday. The new European Conservatives and Reformists Group includes 55 MEPs from eight European member states. Civic Democrat MEP Jan Zahradíl said that he was ‘very happy’ that years’ worth of negotiations had come to a successful conclusion on Monday. The Civic Democrats and British Conservatives both left the European People’s Party, previously the biggest bloc in the European Parliament, to found the new European Conservatives and Reformists Group.

The Czech Republic has one of the highest rates of road fatalities in Europe, suggests a report released by the European Transport Safety Council on Monday. Around 39,000 people died in road accidents in the EU last year, with over 1,000 of these deaths being caused by accidents on Czech roads. According to the report, the Czech Republic has one of the highest rates of road fatalities per capita in the whole of the European Union. Nine countries in the 27-state bloc fared worse than the Czech Republic in the Safety Council’s report. Last year, however, road deaths were down in the Czech Republic by 12 percent on 2007’s figures.

Interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer said on Monday that the Czech Parliament had ‘no reason’ to re-examine the EU’s Lisbon treaty in light of guarantees approved in Brussels last week, which pave the way for Irish ratification of the EU reform document. On Friday, EU leaders agreed to a series of guarantees making it possible for the Irish government to hold a new referendum on the Lisbon treaty this autumn. The guarantees are designed to assure Irish voters that Ireland’s traditional neutrality and national sovereignty in certain fields, such as taxes and abortion, will not be jeopardised by the treaty. Last week, Czech President Václav Klaus said that he thought the guarantees changed the treaty, and therefore, the document should be ratified once more by Czech politicians. But, speaking after a government meeting on Monday, Czech PM Jan Fischer said that it would not be necessary to re-ratify the treaty. The Czech Republic’s staunchly eurosceptic President, Václav Klaus, has refused to sign the Lisbon treaty pending Ireland’s approval of the document.

There were sighs of relief on Friday after European Union leaders agreed legal guarantees to Ireland, seen as crucial if Irish ratification of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty is to succeed in a second referendum. But they haven’t counted on Czech President Václav Klaus, who’s so far refused to sign the document despite approval in both chambers of parliament and now says the Irish guarantees amount to new legal arrangements that require separate ratification in the Czech parliament.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout says he sees no problem in leaving the selection of the next Czech European commissioner until after early elections in October. Speaking on a TV debate programme, Mr Kohout said, however, that by then political parties and the government should have produced a short-list of at least three possible candidates for the post. The election results would then determine who gets the job, he said. A few days ago the caretaker Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, criticised the lack of clarity surrounding the appointment, which he said complicated talks on what position the Czech Republic will get on the European Commission. The current Czech commissioner is Vladimír Špidla, who holds the employment and social affairs brief.