The European Union cannot change its Lisbon reform treaty to meet demands by Czech President Vaclav Klaus for a footnote to be added, Reuters quoted French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner as saying today. Kouchner also accused Klaus of "inventing difficulties" for the treaty, which would give the EU a full-time president and foreign minister as well as streamlining decision-making. "We are not going to change the Lisbon treaty, it has been approved by the Czech parliament and by the Czech senate in the precise terms in which everybody has accepted it, the 27 (EU) countries including that country," he told a news conference. "I have no doubt that President Klaus is going to invent many more difficulties, but I think that the Czech people accept that their representatives having voted, having said yes each time to this treaty precisely without changing one word, will influence him enough for it to finally be done," he added. Klaus raised a new obstacle to ratifying the treaty on Thursday, telling current EU president Sweden he wanted a footnote added to the document before signing it. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Klaus had asked for a footnote of two sentences relating to the charter of fundamental rights. There were no details of the wording.
