By: BBC News

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, the final step in its ratification.

The treaty was drawn up to streamline decision-making in the EU, and is a watered-down version of a draft EU constitution rejected four years ago.

Among its measures, it creates a European Council president and alters the way member states vote.

The treaty could now come into force as early as December.

The Lisbon Treaty’s supporters say it will allow the EU to operate more efficiently and give it greater influence in world affairs. Critics say it will cede too many national powers to Brussels.

Britain’s opposition Conservative Party, which has argued the treaty should be put to a referendum, said it would announce its response on Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the ratification, and said it marked the end of years of debate.

“Today is a day when Europe looks forward,” he said.

Court bias

The Czech Republic was the last of the EU’s 27 member states to ratify the treaty.

Mr Klaus signed it shortly after the Czech constitutional court rejected a complaint against it, ruling that it was in line with the Czech constitution.

A BBC correspondent says Mr Klaus accused the court of bias and said the Czech Republic was no longer sovereign.

The Eurosceptic Czech leader had recently said he would no longer attempt to block the treaty, after receiving the promise of an opt-out from the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Mr Klaus said the opt-out was needed to avoid property claims from ethnic Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II.

The Lisbon Treaty replaced an earlier draft constitution that was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005.

It would create the post of a new European Council president who would serve a term of two-and-a-half years.

It also provides for a new foreign policy chief, combining the posts of the existing foreign affairs representative and the external affairs commissioner.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said earlier that he hoped the EU could move “as quickly as possible” to make appointments to the new posts.