While Polish President, Lech Kaczyñski, had previously signed a parliamentary bill paving the way for Polish ratification of the Lisbon Treaty he had also said that it would have been pointless to give his final signature before a solution to the Irish no vote could be found.

After making the EU wait for 557 days since the Polish parliament passed the treaty and in full view of foreign VIPs and TV cameras, today he signed the Lisbon Treaty at a ceremony in Warsaw.


The cloud hanging over the event is Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, who made clear on Friday that he plans to push for last-minute changes to the EU's new treaty at the upcoming 29 October summit despite the fact that both houses of the Czech parliament have ratified the treaty, in February and May

Some in the Czech Republio believe that the president is exceeding his powers and other member states may be wary about making concessions to the Czech president who has made his loathing for the traty very evident.
He has now told the president of the European parliament, Jerzy Buzek, that he wanted the treaty reopened to secure an exemption from the charter of fundamental rights which is appended to the treaty.

The leader of the Conservative party in the UK, David Cameron has encouraged Mr Klaus to hold out on ratifying the treaty

The UK Foreign Secretary has called upon the contents of the private letter from David Cameron to the Czech president to be made public.