Brussels, 26/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 November, the Czech Constitutional Court ruled that the Treaty of Lisbon is compatible with the country's constitution. The verdict paves the way for the Treaty to be ratified by both houses of the Czech Parliament (the lower house and the Senate), possibly before 1 January 2009 when the country will take up the six-monthly presidency of the EU. Although there are still technical obstructions which may still delay the votes, a sufficient majority seems to be in place in both houses to approve the new treaty, which has the approval of the government of Mirek Topolanek. The situation has become greatly more relaxed in the Senate, where the Eurosceptics of the ODS party lost their constitutional majority during the elections of 25 October. The reaction of President Vaclav Klaus remains to be seen. He announced that he would not sign the ratification bill until Ireland has ratified the Treaty (a stance which has also been taken by the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski). The European Commission is "entirely confident that the Czech Republic will honour the commitments it took when it signed the treaty", a spokesperson to José Manuel Barroso commented on Wednesday. President of the EP, Hans-Gert Pöttering, welcomed the "end of the deadlock" to Czech ratification and voiced his hopes that the treaty would be able to enter into force very soon, "ideally before the European elections of 2009". (H.B./transl.fl)