Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski signed the Lisbon Treaty on October 10 2009, ending 18 months of stalling about doing so, and leaving his Czech Republic counterpart Vaclav Klaus as the only holdout against signing the document that will substantially reshape the workings of the European Union.
 
EU leaders came up with the treaty at the end of 2007, and it was meant to take effect in January 2009, but has faced a number of hurdles in the ratification process, including Irish rejection in a June 2008 referendum – a decision now reversed – and resistance by heads of state in Warsaw and Prague.
 
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Kaczynski said: "I am deeply convinced that this is not the end. That this cannot be the end. Croatia will probably join the union soon. But should not be the last country".
 
"The European Union remains a union of sovereign nation states and let it be so."
 
"We now have 27 member states. I am deeply convinced this is not the end... The EU, a successful experiment without precedent in human history, cannot be closed to those who wish to join... not only in the Balkans but also countries like Georgia."
 
Kaczynski said that the EU was "a great experiment in the history of mankind," that would "function even more effectively" when the treaty takes effect.
 
The signing ceremony, held at the presidential palace in Warsaw, was attended by European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and Frederik Reinfeldt, prime minister of Sweden, the country currently holding the rotating presidency of the EU.
 
Kaczynski said that he delayed signing the treaty for the 557 days since Poland’s houses of parliament because of the initial rejection in the 2008 Irish referendum, Polish radio reported.
 
"Now that the decision of the Irish people has changed means that the treaty has been revived," Kaczynski said.
 
However, in a development similar to what happened earlier in Germany and in the Czech Republic, a group of Polish MPs have asked the constitutional court for a ruling on the mutual compatibility of the Lisbon Treaty and the Polish constitution.
 
On October 10, Deutsche Welle reported that Czech president Vaclav Klaus had thrown another wrench into the Lisbon Treaty ratification process, this time seeking an exemption to prevent Germans expelled during World War 2 from using it to reclaim property.
 
Klaus wants the Czech Republic to be exempt from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which he believes would expose the country to restitution claims from ethnic Germans expelled from what was then Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the war. He argues that the charter would let claimants circumvent national courts and take their case to the European Court of Justice.
 
Earlier, Klaus – an avowed Eurosceptic – has also cited a pending constitutional court ruling as a reason to delay signing the Lisbon Treaty. The constitutional court challenge was mounted by a group of senators reportedly aligned to Klaus, who want constitutional judges to say whether the treaty and the Czech constitution are mutually compatible.
 
Czech caretaker prime minister Jan Fischer and other leaders in the country have assured the EU that the Lisbon Treaty will complete ratification in the country by the end of 2009.