The European Council has agreed to allow a deal enabling Czech president Vaclav Klaus to sign the Lisbon Treaty by opting out from one of its provisions, while around the sidelines of the meeting of EU heads of state and government, Tony Blair’s hopes of becoming the bloc’s new-style President were reportedly evaporating.
 
If the Czech Republic’s constitutional court announces on November 3 2009 that it finds the treaty compatible with the country’s constitution, the way will be open for Klaus to sign the Lisbon Treaty, removing the last holdout against the tome that will revamp how the EU works.
 
"I am pleased to announce that the European Council has this evening agreed to accept the exemption that the president of the Czech Republic has requested in order to be able to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon," Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, told a news conference on October 29 2009.
 
"We succeeded in reaching this agreement thanks to the many EU leaders who showed leadership and a strong willingness to co-operate," Reinfeldt told journalists after the close of proceedings on the first day of the two-day gathering.
 
If the treaty is signed by Klaus during November, then it will enter into force on December 1 2009.
 
The treaty establishes, among various other provisions, the new post of full-time President of the European Council and a new-style foreign minister for the bloc. But former UK prime minister Blair, who has been pitching for the job of European Council President, appeared to be losing ground in his bid.
 
The BBC said that Gordon Brown’s UK government, which has been backing Blair, had "signalled that a defeat for Blair’s candidacy is now ‘a clear possibility’."
 
Leaders of EU countries with socialist governments reportedly have not rallied behind Blair.
 
If Blair really is losing ground, this could open the way for other candidates, in a field that could then be led by Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker. Other candidates for the European Council President job are said to include Jan Peter Balkenende, the prime minister of The Netherlands, Latvia’s former president Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Ireland’s former prime minister John Bruton, Austria’s former chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and Spain’s former prime minister Felipe Gonzalez.
 
Schuessel was said to be the candidate next most likely if there was a lack of sufficient consensus about Juncker’s run.
 
Observers of the unofficial contest – no formal decision can be made until the Lisbon Treaty is in force – were awaiting the outcome of deliberations by a trio of socialist leaders designated to deal with the question of the European Council presidency.
 
The trio is made up of Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann and socialist bloc leader Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, a former prime minister of Denmark.
 
Resolution of the issue could see the European Council President coming from the centre-right bloc within the EU, which currently holds the majority in the European Parliament, and the centre-left grouping getting the foreign ministry job – where the name of UK foreign secretary David Miliband was still being floated in speculation, even though the Labour minister has rejected reports that he is a candidate.
 
Failure by the centre-left grouping to endorse Blair has been compounded by EU heavyweights France and Germany declining to endorse him. Even lesser countries, Bulgaria among them, have not taken a definitive position, with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov describing both Blair and Juncker as worthy candidates but declining to plump for either one.