Thread: EU Blames Ireland, Moves On

EU Blames Ireland, Moves On


Friday, Jun. 20, 2008
By LEO CENDROWICZ/BRUSSELS



Nicolas Sarkozy sits prior to a working session of a European summit at the headquarters of the European Council in Brussels.


A week after Irish voters rejected the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, its leaders are still in a bewildered state over how to resolve their crisis.

At the E.U.'s two-day summit in Brussels, which ended on Friday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy used the treaty deadlock to say there was no point in continuing accession talks with Croatia and Turkey until the current 27 members could agree on their future. "Without the Treaty of Lisbon there won't be any enlargement," he said. "You can't say no to reforms and yes to enlargement."

The Lisbon Treaty is designed to streamline E.U. decision-making now that the club has expanded to 27 members, but the Irish referendum — the only such vote in the E.U. — has thrown the entire project in disarray.

Sarkozy and other E.U. leaders are now pinning hopes of salvaging the Treaty on another referendum, perhaps in a year's time. Officially, the bruised Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen was treated with sympathy at the Brussels summit, and there was universal recognition that the Irish vote had to be "respected". But behind the scenes, Cowen — tellingly banished to the far end of the family photograph of E.U. leaders — was alternately cajoled and bullied to run another vote.

Yet there is no guarantee a second vote would win. The referendum got nixed thanks to a bewildering array of mostly unrelated objections, including abortion, neutrality, tax sovereignty, economic prospects, the loss of an Irish E.U. commissioner and the deregulation of the taxi trade. Indeed, an E.U. survey of 2,000 Irish "no" voters said the main reason they rejected the Treaty was that they did not understand it.

None of this makes Cowen's task any easier. He will now report back to the leaders at their October summit with either a road map charting a way out of the mess or a confirmation that another vote is pointless and the treaty must be declared dead.

But there are other options available. Ireland could be offered additional guarantees of its sovereignty. Such "explanatory protocols" would involve no changes to the treaty's text, and therefore little or no need for other governments to ratify the document. "Once re-ratification has been completed in the 26, it would be entirely appropriate for the Irish government to call for a second referendum," says Daniel Gros, Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). But he warned that stakes would be much higher. "This referendum would be about a different question: does Ireland wish to join the 26 with the Lisbon Treaty in force? At this point, another 'no' would effectively mean that Ireland would leave the E.U."

If that doesn't work, much of Lisbon could be imposed by stealth. Creative legal minds would ensure that the most pressing institutional changes — like an E.U. foreign minister and an "External Action Service" — are implemented without a daunting new treaty that would involve the assent of pesky voters.

Or else the E.U. could simply plow on with what it has under the existing treaties. This last option has been decried as a recipe for gridlock. Yet studies have shown that the 27 member states still function well with machinery designed for 15. Last December, Helen Wallace of the London School of Economics published research showing that E.U. enlargement has barely changed day-to-day work: the European Parliament produced as much legislation in 2006 as it did five years before, the European Commission has maintained its work rate, and there has been no significant rise in non-compliance cases at the European Court of Justice.

As for E.U. leaders, they are still capable of dealing with real-life issues, as they showed in Brussels after their recriminations over the Irish vote. They announced a relief package for farmers, fishermen and others affected by soaring oil and food prices; they agreed to scrap diplomatic sanctions against Cuba imposed in 2003; and they implicitly threatened more sanctions against Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's regime.

Which suggests that even without the Lisbon Treaty, reports of the E.U.'s death are somewhat premature.




http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 75,00.html

Go Ireland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by agrneydgrl

Go Ireland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My thoughts exactly!

EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana attending a doorstep interview as he arrives at the European Council headquarters on the second day of an EU summit in Brussels on Friday. (Sebastien Pirlet/Reuters)


EU leaders argue over whom to blame for Irish treaty vote


By Stephen Castle
Published: June 20, 2008



BRUSSELS: Delaying until autumn efforts to salvage the Lisbon Treaty, leaders of the European Union argued Friday over who was to blame for Ireland's no vote and failed to agree on how to assuage the anger of voters over rising commodity prices.

A two-day meeting produced an outspoken attack by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, on the handling of world trade negotiations by the European Commission negotiator, Peter Mandelson, whom he blamed for the Irish rejection of the European Union treaty.

Campaigners against the treaty in Ireland had capitalized on farmers' fears that a deal in the so-called Doha Development Round of global trade talks would hurt their incomes because it proposes a reduction in tariffs.

The French president's criticisms were rejected by the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, and by Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain.

Meanwhile, a proposal by Sarkozy for relieving pressure on consumers - a reduction in the value-added tax on fuel - received a cool reception from other heads of government, who agreed only to request a study by the European Commission. "Germany's skepticism is known," Chancellor Angela Merkel said of the proposal.

Billed as a crisis summit after the Irish rejection of the Lisbon agreement, the meeting failed to chart a clear way out of the impasse created by the vote. After hours of negotiation the leaders agreed to continue with ratification, while taking account of problems in the Czech Republic, where the treaty has been referred to the Constitutional Court. Nineteen of the 27 countries in the Union have approved the treaty, but it needs the approval of the entire bloc to take effect.

Brown was praised for pushing ahead with ratification, which has now been approved by both houses of the British Parliament. He said Friday, however, that the final stage of the process in Britain would have to await a ruling by the High Court in London on an effort by opponents of the treaty to force a referendum in Britain.

European leaders agreed to discuss the Lisbon Treaty again in October to consider the way forward.

The bloc's strategy is based on the assumption that Brian Cowen, the Irish prime minister, will be prepared to repeat the vote if some concessions were made. But while he did not rule out a second referendum, Cowen said it was "simply too early to know how to move forward at this time."

If Cowen is reluctant to sanction a new referendum, divisions are considered certain to emerge on how hard to push him to do so, with France and Germany likely to press hardest. France and Germany made it clear that they would oppose any further expansion of the bloc without ratification of the treaty.

The Irish vote has provoked a round of recrimination, particularly from France, where the European Commission has been criticized for failing to react to rising prices for fuel and commodities.

Sarkozy rejected claims that he was blaming Barroso, arguing that Ireland's referendum debate had focused on abortion, euthanasia, taxation, the World Trade Organization and agriculture. "You can't blame that on Mr. Barroso," Sarkozy said. "Choose someone else. Mandelson for example."

"One child dies every 30 seconds because they are hungry, and we should go and negotiate within the WTO framework a 20 percent cut in European agricultural production? Honestly, there is one person who is of that opinion," Sarkozy added. "That's Mr. Mandelson."

In response Mandelson said that France had "a particular national position" on world trade talks. "We should be clear that President Sarkozy was asked to blame the president of the commission and tactfully and diplomatically chose to blame me instead. My shoulders are broad enough and my skin thick enough to take this," he told Sky TV.

Under fire also from Italy, whose prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, rebuked commissioners for criticizing national governments, Barroso said the commission was an "independent" institution. "We don't need member states' authority to express opinions," he said.

Those urging a second referendum in Ireland may be encouraged by an opinion poll taken for the commission after the vote. It showed that a lack of information about Lisbon was cited as the main reason for voting against the treaty, selected by 22 percent of those who voted no.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the two-day summit meeting, EU leaders threatened tougher sanctions against Zimbabwe, if elections there were disrupted by violence, and against Sudan over its refusal to hand over officials wanted for war crimes in Darfur.

Leaders also agreed to the formal lifting of diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, which banned high-level visits to EU nations by Cuban officials, but which have not been in force since 2005. The sanctions were imposed in 2003 but suspended two years later.

Officials said the bloc would evaluate Cuba's progress on civil rights in a year and could take new measures if there is no improvement.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/20/europe/union.php

The EU will keep pushing Ireland.

Originally Posted by MyAmerica

The EU will keep pushing Ireland.

I don't think the EU will stop until they get their precious scam I mean treaty ratified. I'm sure they'll use every trick in the book.

IRELAND: "Don't cave in to the EU's dirty tricks!"

YOU CAN STAND ALONE, IRELAND. NO ONE NEEDS THE EU FOR ANYTHING. KEEP YOUR FREEDOM!

GOD BLESS the IRISH