The pro-Lisbon Treaty camp hailed the decision by the Czech constitutional court that cleared away the final obstacle to that country’s president, Vaclav Klaus, signing the treaty, and Bulgaria – which had been among the member states urging Klaus to sign – is seeking its role as the workings of the bloc are reshaped.

On November 3, the day that the Czech court announced its decision and that hours later saw Klaus announcing that he had signed the treaty, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Roumyana Zheleva said that after the Lisbon Treaty comes into force, the EU would "truly be a global actor" that would have to be a strong player for prosperity and stability throughout the world.

"However, we must of course never forget that the EU is most needed in its immediate neighbourhood," Zheleva told a conference in Sofia.

"This is naturally the area where we will have to deliver. Here everybody is rightfully looking towards the EU first. I am optimistic that the new (Eastern Partnership) policy approach will be successful and I would like to assure you that Bulgaria, for its part, is ready to be an active player in the overall EU approach in the region," she said.

Bulgaria has nominated Zheleva for the energy portfolio in the next European Commission, but with many observers believing it unlikely that Sofia would be entrusted with this portfolio, her name also has been mentioned in connection with the portfolios of enlargement, or that of regional policy.

Signing of the Lisbon Treaty by Klaus – " I had expected the court ruling and I respect it, although I fundamentally disagree with its content and justification," he told journalists in Prague – was expected to make it possible for the treaty to come into effect from December 1, but it could take some time for the new European Commission to be formed. This is even though the current Commission’s mandate expired at the end of October – to the delight of Eurosceptics who regard the Commission’s playing in extra time as of questionable legality.

Far from all EU member states have nominated candidate commissioners, and a major question remains the choices of the full-time European Council President and the High Representative for foreign affairs envisaged in the treaty.

This would mean a complex process of negotiations of varying degrees of formality among member states before a final list is confirmed by European Commission President Jose Barroso.

Barroso, who welcomed the Czech court decision by saying that "no further delays should prevent the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty", has said that he would prefer to know who would occupy the two key posts before the rest of the Commission was finalised.

However long this takes, with most European leaders hoping that the nominations would be finalised before the European Council meeting in December, the confirmation hearings of candidate commissioners in the European Parliament are unlikely to be held before January 2010.

As to the two posts that have become the subject of a torrent of reports and speculation, the European Council President and EU "foreign minister", UK foreign secretary David Miliband continued to be named as likely to get the foreign affairs portfolio – in spite of his denials that he would accept the job – while the question of who would be the Council President remained open.

Within the UK, the Lisbon Treaty saga continued to bedevil centre-right politics, as Tory leader David Cameron was seen as a backtracking on a 2007 "cast-iron guarantee" that, should as predicted he lead his party to power in 2010, he would hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.