Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said on Thursday that his country will not put the brakes on the ratification process of the EU's Lisbon treaty.
  
"My government approved the Lisbon Treaty. I signed it. I link my political career with the Lisbon Treaty. The process will continue," Topolanek told journalists after the first day of a two-day EU summit in Brussels.
  
"The Czech Republic is not going to put any brakes on this process," he added.
  
Prague's parliamentary ratification of the treaty was suspended at the end of April whilst it was still going through the lower chamber, after the Senate demanded a ruling from the country's constitutional court on whether the accord conformed with the constitution.  
  
Irish voters plunged the European Union into a new period of political uncertainty last week by voting against the Lisbon Treaty, which has to be ratified by all EU countries to take effect.
  
The highly eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus said the treaty was effectively finished when the result came through.
  
Topolanek said that "the only way to discontinue the ratification process is to withdraw our signature from the treaty."