The Czech Constitutional Court is to hold a hearing on a challenge that has been delaying ratification of the Lisbon Treaty on October 27th.
The Czech Republic is the only one of the European Union’s 27 member states yet to ratify the treaty, and the court challenge brought by a group of eurosceptic senators is one of two key stumbling blocks on the path to ratification.
The other obstacle is President Vaclav Klaus. He is obliged to wait for the court ruling before he completes ratification, but he has also demanded the EU grants the Czechs a partial opt-out from the pact.
The treaty, already approved by both houses of the Czech parliament, is aimed at streamlining decision-making in the EU and giving the bloc a bigger clout. It would also give the EU a long-term president and a more powerful foreign representative.
The court has in past cases often ruled on the day of the hearing or soon after, but there is no guarantee of a quick verdict.
The hearing will be held just ahead of the two-day October summit of EU leaders in Brussels, which begins on October 29th
The court has already once rejected a complaint against the treaty, and most lawyers expect it to dismiss the latest appeal, which would open the way to ratification.
But Mr Klaus threw a further obstacle in the way last week, demanding the EU grant the Czechs guarantees the treaty would not open the way to property claims by Germans forced out of the country after World War Two.
The cabinet said it regretted Mr Klaus did not raise his demands much earlier but said it would try negotiate the guarantees with the other 26 EU partners by the time of the October summit, provided he pledges that he will have no further demands.