2009-11-15 03:32:17 - The hero of the Velvet Revolution, former president Václav Havel is at the centre of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism.

The celebrations will culminate with a concert on Saturday night to which former president Václav Havel has invited world artists close to his heart , Lou Reed, Joan Baez, Susan Vega and Renee Fleming. The show is titled “It’s finally happening” this slogan that tens of thousands of Czechs chanted in the streets during the Velvet Revolution.

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer on official visit to the Vatican on Saturday, where he was received by Pope Benedict XVI and other leading Catholic Church dignitaries. The Czech prime minister gave the Pope a commemorative gold medal minted on occasion of the 20th anniversary of the canonisation of St Agnes of Bohemia. Mr. Fischer also laid flowers on the graves of the

previous pope John Paul II and Czech Cardinal Josef Beran.

Strained relations between the Czech Republic and the Vatican are hampered by the fact that the Czech Republic has not yet ratified the Czech-Vatican treaty on bilateral relations. Both countries' representatives agreed on the text of the treaty, which also concerns the position of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, in the late 1990s, but the Czech Chamber of Deputies failed to approve the document in 2003. The Vatican does not intend to change the text of the original treaty and still expects the Czech Republic to ratify it in its present form.

On Friday Prime Minister Jan Fischer personally took the signed Czech copy of the EU’s Lisbon reform treaty to Rome, formally concluding its ratification by all member states. The Czech Republic was the last country to ratify the treaty and place it in the depository of the Italian Foreign Ministry, where all EU documents are kept. The Lisbon treaty will take effect on December 1st opening the way to significant changes in the workings of the 27-member block. An EU summit, scheduled for next Thursday is to decide who will fill key posts in the new EU structure, such as the post of EU president and EU foreign minister.