The Slovak parliament voted to ratify the Lisbon treaty on 10 April, ending a stand-off between Prime Minister Robert Fico's government and the opposition. The government secured the necessary two-thirds majority to approve the treaty after a small ethnic-Hungarian party broke ranks with other opposition parties and supported Fico's government. Opposition parties had been withholding approval for the treaty in order to block new media which they claimed would restrict press freedom.
Nine countries have now ratified the treaty: Austria, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and now Slovakia. Poland formally ratified the treaty on 10 April after Polish MPs had approved it at the end of March. Austrian MPs approved the treaty on 9 April.
