Slovakia freezes EU constitution ratification

Slovakia's top court has asked the country's president not to sign off on the ratification of the European constitution, until judges decide if there should have been a referendum on the new charter.

The constitutional court is expected to give its opinion by the end of this year on the appeal of 13 activists who argued the EU treaty would be equivalent to Slovakia joining a trans-national state, a decision which would need to be backed up by a referendum under the Slovak constitution. ...