Any ideas of reopening the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty across Europe were condemned today as “absurd” and “surreal”.

THE Czech government is to ask its fellow EU member states to allow the country to opt out of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in an effort to persuade their president to sign the Lisbon Treaty.

New talks on how to bring the Lisbon treaty into force take place today – but the man with key to its future will not be there.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday shelved a Bush-era plan for an Eastern European missile defence system that has been a major irritant in relations with Russia. He said a redesigned defensive system would be cheaper and more effective against the threat from Iranian missiles.