Better late than never.
EU leaders hope that the Lisbon treaty will come into force on December 1, almost a year later than originally envisaged.
A new timetable has been drawn up following the disruption caused by Irish voters and the Czech President under which an EU President and Foreign Minister will take office as soon as January 1.
Now that President Klaus has signed the treaty on behalf of the Czech Republic, the process will be complete when the formal articles of ratification are deposited in Rome, where the original treaties founding the European Economic Community in 1957 are held.
All subsequent treaties amend these foundation documents, meaning that the articles signed by President Klaus must physically be taken to the Italian capital to complete the process. The Lisbon treaty will then come into force across the 27-nation EU on the first day of the following month.
EU leaders are preparing to call a one-day summit later this month to decide who they want to do the two top jobs it creates: President of the European Council and High Representative of the Union for Foreign and Security Policy.
Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish Prime Minister who holds the EUs rotating presidency, has put himself in charge of canvassing every EU leader and compiling a shortlist of candidates. He wants no more than two names for each post from each leader.
Mr Reinfeldt will hold two rounds of confessionals, which means that he calls in each leader individually, first to ask who they want and second to explain who he is considering and to find out if they have strong objections.
Confessionals are traditionally carried out face to face with just four people in the room in this case, Mr Reinfeldt and his top official and the national leader and his or her top official. Mr Reinfeldt wants to go into the final deliberation with shortlists of no more than three names for each post.
The one-day EU summit will also set the ball rolling on appointing a new European Commission, with one member from each EU nation. The nominees must go before the European Parliament for formal hearings, which could take place in December, so that a new commission is in place for January 1.
Gordon Brown has yet to confirm whether he will re-nominate Baroness Ashton, who would lose her place if David Miliband were to become the EU's Foreign Minister, because the latter will also have a seat in the European Commission.