The upper house of the Czech parliament on Wednesday approved the European Union’s Lisbon treaty by a convincing majority, increasing the chances that long-awaited institutional reforms in the 27-nation bloc will come into effect on January 1, 2010.

The Czech senate’s 54-20 vote was comfortably above the margin required for approval and came as a relief to EU leaders, who have invested the best part of 10 years in trying to redesign the EU’s decision-making procedures in a way that satisfies everyone.