The eagerly anticipated session of the Constitutional Court delivered its verdict just a few minutes after it has started this morning, according to Aktuálně.cz.

 the Lisbon treaty is in line with the Czech constitution.

"The Lisbon treaty altering the EU Treaty and Treaty on founding the European Union and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union are not in conflict with the constitutional order," were the first words of Pavel Rychetský, chairman of the Constitutional Court who started to read the verdict.

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Thus the treaty does not reduce Czech sovereignty, as warned by its opponents.

The Court is now reading its verdict that is believed to have 80 pages. Because of that there will be an intermission, said Pavel Rychetský. He also stated the Court judges have scrutinized the EU pact for seven months now.

Parliament`s to take over

The outcome of the court session means that the Lisbon treaty would be passed over to the Parliament to vote on its ratification. PM Mirek Topolánek, of the same party that Václav Klaus is a founder of (ODS), has said earlier it would be within the first three months of 2009. Other MPs have been trying to promote the end of this year.

The Lisbon treaty was sent to the Constitutional Court by the Senate in March this year. Among fierce critics of the treaty and EU as such is also Czech president Václav Klaus. Tuesday´s session saw a number of senior political figures, inclduing his, reading statements upon the treaty.

The stand of MPs, represented by Deputy MP Alexandr Vondra at Tuesday`s Constitutional court session, claimed the opposite than president Klaus - the treaty would guarantee a better functioning of the European Union.

During its scrutiny, the constitutional judges analyzed only those points that the Senators found controversial. They did not study the document as a whole.