03/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - Currently, “the situation is much worse in the Czech Republic than in Ireland” with regard to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, German MEP Elmar Brok from the European People's Party group (EPP-ED) said at a lunchtime debate organised by the Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE) in Brussels on Tuesday 31 March. If the treaty is not ratified, nothing will happen for two or three years, but “things will fall apart because we won't be able to give proper answers to certain questions,” especially in the areas of energy and external policy, Brok said. “We are stopping a treaty, saying it is not for the people although it gives more rights to the people, and they keep the more bureaucratic one,” he opined. Without the Lisbon Treaty, the decision-making process will remain slow and the internal market will not be legally binding. The European Union will not be able to become “a global actor and the member states will have no influence if there is no evolution,” Brok argued. (E.M./transl.rt)