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In related news, Sweden is ready to assist the Czech Republic with the remainder of the country’s presidency of the European Union, the Swedish PM Fredrik Reinfeld told Swedish Radio on Friday. Mr Reinfled said his country, which will take over the presidency in July, is now facing higher responsibility because of the fall of the Czech government halfway through the presidency. The Swedish leader said that instead of waiting for the end of the Czech term at the EU’s helm, it was better to provide assistance to the new Czech government to successfully complete the presidency. In June, the EU will hold an important summit that will deal with the situation in Ireland and will also elect the new head of the European Commission.

In related news, outgoing European Affairs Minister Alexandr Vondra said ahead of the Eastern Partnership summit that it is a way of offering these countries the highest possible relations with the EU given that they were not yet ready for membership. It was not a substitute for joining the EU, he added. The upgrade in relations for some countries could mean that they sign association agreements with the EU. These set out a broad framework for cooperation. EC President Jose Manuel Barroso said at the summit's conclusion that the new agreements would push political and economic reforms which could bring the countries closer to the EU. Separately, Mr Vondra said he would have expected the leaders of large EU countries such as Britain, France, Italy and Spain to have attended the meeting.

The head of the eurosceptical party Libertas has welcomed President Václav Klaus’s declaration he will not sign the Lisbon treaty following Wednesday’s vote in favour by the Czech upper house, the Senate. Libertas’s head Declan Ganley said he was pleased by President Klaus’s stance. The Czech head of state said after the Senate vote that he would wait on the outcome of an expected referral of the treaty to the Constitutional Court by a group of Civic Democrat senators. Libertas’s leader said President Klaus was standing by the people of Ireland and would not ratify the treaty without their consent. The Czech President has said in the past that he would not sign the treaty until the Irish people overturned their previous referendum rejection of the package of EU reforms.

The upper house of the Czech parliament has voted to ratify the EU’s Lisbon treaty, finalizing the parliamentary ratification of the document. But one major obstacle remains on the road to the full Czech approval of the treaty. The Czech president, Václav Klaus, is in no hurry to put his signature to what he sees serious threat of Czech sovereignty.

The European Union launches a new Eastern Partnership plan with six former Soviet states at a summit in the Czech capital, Prague on Thursday evening. The initiative, which is said to irritate Moscow, is aimed at fostering closer ties with countries like Ukraine and Moldova. But what can the Czech-backed plan actually achieve in practical terms?

The Czech president, Václav Klaus, now has to put his signature to ratification in order for it to come into effect. A group of euro-sceptic Civic Democrat senators have proposed sending the treaty to the Czech Constitutional Court; Mr Klaus said after Wednesday’s vote that if they do so, he will not put his signature to Lisbon until the court rules on whether the document is in line with the Czech constitution. A request last year from Civic Democrat senators for the court to consider the treaty put the matter on ice for some months and is one reason the Czech Republic is among the last states to deal with its ratification. President Klaus also said he would not sign ratification until Lisbon has been approved by Ireland. He reiterated his view that Ireland's no vote in a referendum last year rendered the treaty a dead document.

The Czech Senate has voted to ratify the European Union’s Lisbon treaty, two and a half months after it was approved by the lower house. The motion was passed when 54 out of 79 senators present raised their hands for Lisbon ratification in Wednesday afternoon’s vote. It was effectively decided by members of the Civic Democratic Party, which had previously been opposed to Lisbon: twelve of the party’s senators voted in favour of its ratification.

An EU-Canada summit was held in Prague on Wednesday as part of the Czech Republic’s presidency of the European Union. The summit saw the official launch of bilateral talks on free trade which would, among other things, allow for the lowering of tariffs and co-operation between the two sides on determining the origin of commodities. The EU and Canada could both gain EUR 20 billion a year from an agreement that should be completed by 2011. One point of contention ahead of the meeting was a European Parliament ban on Canadian seal products, though Canada’s trade minister, Stockwell Day, said the matter should not preclude agreement on a trade deal.

The Czech Senate approved the Lisbon treaty in a vote on Wednesday afternoon, some two months after the document was ratified by the lower house of Parliament. The Czech Republic is one of the last countries in Europe to vote on the reform document, and its ratification is far from complete, with eurosceptic president Vaclav Klaus still having to sign the document.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, outgoing Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said he believed that the European Union was currently experiencing ‘the worst days and weeks of the financial crisis’. Mr Kalousek continued, however, that the ‘first signs of stabilisation’ could already be seen, and that he hoped by next year markets would be showing signs of a revival. The meeting of finance ministers which Mr Kalousek addressed was held a day after the bloc released a new prognosis for its economy this year. According to the European Commission, the bloc’s economy will shrink by four percent in 2009, with Europe remaining in recession in 2010. On Tuesday, the Czech finance minister said he remained ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the European economy’s recovery in the months to come.