JURIST - Paper Chase: Austria, Denmark parliaments approve EU reform treaty; Czech vote delayed

[JURIST] The upper house of the Austrian parliament [official website, in German] Thursday voted 151-27 [press materials, in German] to approve the EU reform treaty [JURIST news archive], formally known as the Treaty of Lisbon [official website; PDF text]. The treaty now goes to Austrian President Heinz Fischer for signature. Also Thursday, the Danish national parliament [official website, in Danish] voted 90-25 to approve the document, while the upper house of the Czech parliament voted to delay its vote on the treaty until the country's constitutional court can rule on whether it is consistent with Czech law. The lower house of the German parliament also voted to approve the treaty [JURIST report].

Leaders from the 27 countries that make up the European Union signed the reform treaty [JURIST report] in December, but all member countries must ratify the document before it can take effect. Eight countries, including Slovakia, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, and Slovenia [JURIST reports] have ratified the reform treaty so far. BBC News has more. AFP has additional coverage.

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