Prague  - The Czech parliament's upper house on Wednesday adjourned a session on the European Union's reform treaty for at least one month, joining the lower house in a bid to postpone a vote on the pact.

The 81-seat Senate voted 73-0 to return the treaty to committee negotiations. Four senators abstained.

On Tuesday, the lower house put off a session on the so-called Lisbon Treaty to February 3.

As a result the Czech Republic will not ratify the charter before the country's six-month rotating EU presidency starts January 1.

Brussels - The European Union is "deeply worried" by police raids in Russia on a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to the victims of Stalin's regime, the EU said in a statement Wednesday.

The EU is "deeply worried" by police raids on the St Petersburg- based NGO "Memorial" on Thursday, and sees them as a "negative signal" of Russia's attitude towards human rights, a statement from the French government on behalf of the bloc said.

France currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Brussels  - As 2008 draws to a breathless close amidst financial crisis, debate over climate change and the aftermath of war in Georgia, the European Union's winners and losers are becoming apparent.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy: WINNER. Sarkozy got off to a bad start in 2008, with his popularity slumping in domestic polls, but his career was rejuvenated when he took over the EU's rotating presidency on July 1.

The restless activity which has won him the nickname "Speedy" was abundantly apparent as he spearheaded the EU's joint reaction to the Russian-Georgian war in August, the financial crisis in September and a series of proposals on fighting climate change in December.

Brussels  - Asked over the summer what the European Union should do about Russia's invasion of Georgia, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt replied, "obviously, have a meeting."

In fact, 2008 has seen an abundance of gatherings by the EU's heads of state and government, not all of them due to the hyper-activism of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the bloc's chairman for the latter half of the year.

Brussels  - Climate change, the financial crisis and the European Union's woes over the stalled Lisbon Treaty are set to top the agenda Thursday when EU leaders meet for what has been billed as the most important summit in years.

"This will be perhaps the most crucial European (summit) in recent years ... a real test for Europe," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said ahead of the Brussels meeting.

The most explosive question at the two-day summit is likely to be over a series of proposals which the commission - the EU's executive - agreed to in January to force the bloc to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Nairobi/Accra  - The European Union's election monitoring team Tuesday said that Ghana's elections were open, transparent and competitive as the ruling party's candidate maintained a slim lead while vote counting continued.

"While the process is still ongoing, the 2008 elections have so far helped to strengthen the democratic institutions of Ghana, and Ghana's democratic credentials in the region, Africa and the world at large," EU Chief Observer Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement.

Some were worried that Sunday's simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections could spark the kind of violence witnessed in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria earlier this year. But with a large chunk of the votes counted, the fears seem unfounded.