Thread: EU In Turmoil As Ireland Votes NO TO LISBON TREATY

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Times OnlineJune 13, 2008

EU in turmoil as Ireland votes No to Lisbon Treaty

David Sharrock in Dublin, Philippe Naughton and David Byers


The future of the European Union was tonight clouded in uncertainty after Ireland voted No to the Lisbon Treaty.

Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission President, and a raft of foreign ministers expressed dismay that Ireland - the only member state to hold a referendum on the matter - chose to reject it decisively by 53.4 per cent to 46.6 per cent.

Amid wild cheers from No campaigners, the results were revealed at 5pm as being 862,415 against and 752,451 in favour, meaning a majority of 109,964 for those rejecting the treaty.

Despite the result, EU leaders were tonight vowing to press ahead with ratifying the treaty across all members' parliaments.

Blog: Comment Central - what Lisbon failure means for Cameron
However, the Lisbon Treaty, the reworked successor to the formal constitutional pact dumped by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005, officially needs the approval of all 27 EU member states, meaning the way forward is now clouded in uncertainty.

Despite the vote, Mr Barroso said he believed Ireland was still "committed" to the EU.

"The no vote in Ireland has not solved the problems which the Lisbon Treaty is designed to solve," he said.

"The ratification process is made up of 27 national processes. Eighteen member states have already approved the treaty and the European Commission believes that the remaining ratifications should continue to take their course."

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German Foreign Minister, backed Mr Barroso, although he described it as a "severe setback".

"The ratification process must continue," Mr Steinmeier said in a statement released during a visit to China.

"I am still convinced that we need this treaty - a treaty that makes Europe more democratic, more capable of acting and more transparent."

However, in a television interview last night, Francois Fillon, French Prime Minister, was clear about the effects of a No vote. "If the Irish people decide to reject the treaty of Lisbon, naturally, there will be no treaty of Lisbon," he warned.

Commentators said that the results were a personal disaster for Brian Cowen, the newly appointed Irish Prime Minister, who has struggled to rally the Yes vote following a surprise last-minute surge in opinion poll support for the 'no' campaign in the past week.

The final turnout figure was believed to have been low - a factor believed to have helped the No campaign, since their supporters were more committed and likely to cast their ballots.

Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty leaves the EU facing a new crisis like that which followed the 2005 rejection of the formal constitution. It also means that three million voters have effectively decided the fate of a bloc of almost 500 million people.

Ireland has caused upsets in EU referendums before. In 2001, its voters rejected the Nice Treaty, a result overturned in a second poll the following year.


Blog: Comment Central - what Lisbon failure means for Cameron

Backers of the treaty, which aims to make EU decision-making more efficient, struggled to get their message across, despite a campaign backed by all bar one of the main political parties.

Opponents rallied support for the No campaign around claims including that the treaty threatens sensitive Irish policies like the ban on abortion, low corporation tax and military neutrality.

Elsewhere in Europe there has been some bemusement that a country which owes its economic success - as the Celtic Tiger of the 1990s - largely to massive European Union investment should reject closer European ties.

Libertas, a group run by the businessman Declan Ganley and the Sinn Fein party, led by Gerry Adams, were among the most prominent 'no' campaigners.

Mr Ganley said today: "The Irish people should never have been taken for granted. In their enormous wisdom they have taken on board the treaty, looked at the arguments and, it seems that we have returned the same result again that our fellow Europeans in France and the Netherlands have already sent to the unelected Brussels elite."

He added: "In fairnesss to Mr Cowen and the Yes side they did everything they could - including some off-the-ball tackles - to get the result that Brussels wanted, so nobody should criticised him from there.

"But what this does is to give Mr Cowen a mandate to go back to Brussels and build a better deal. I have faith in him that he will do that."

In a sign of the passions aroused by the issue, Brian Lenihan, the Finance Minister, had to be escorted from Dublin's main counting station when No campaigners attempted to drown him out and scuffles broke out. "As you know from Eastern Europe when the Far Right and the Far Left take over free speech disappears very fast," he said.

Mr Lenihan told The Times: "The trend is not favourable. I am disappointed with the result. Clearly Ireland is not in a position to ratify the treaty. We will await the reaction of other member states.







http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 128055.ece

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

and the SAME FOR THE North American Union

Not No But H_LL NO!!!!!!

My husband read the treaty in full and has been actively calling friends, family and pub owners letting them know that a small clause in the treaty would take away their constitutional right to vote on treaties. His old red cross unit was telling everyone they met at every event. It is something we personally have been watching closely. I am happy with the result, but my hubby says this is their third attempt and he fears they will keep on trying until they wear the people down.

Despite the result, EU leaders were tonight vowing to press ahead with ratifying the treaty across all members' parliaments.

Sounds like the traitors in our senate! Let's make it two out of three??? Vote until you wear down the opposition or get the desired result!

I say WOO HOO as well yip yip yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IRELAND!

AirborneSapper7




My Thoughts exactly WHOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Despite the result, EU leaders were tonight vowing to press ahead with ratifying the treaty across all members' parliaments.

"I am still convinced that we need this treaty - a treaty that makes Europe more democratic, more capable of acting and more transparent."

A NO vote to radification of the treaty is democracy in action.

God Bless Ireland!

LONDON, England (CNN) -- It is difficult to assess who is the most embarrassed by the Irish voters' rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU's planned new constitution subtly re-packaged as a series of treaty amendments.
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No campaigners get the message across on a Dublin, Ireland, wall.
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Without ratification by all 27 countries the new constitution cannot go ahead.

Certainly it is a big blow for Brian Cowen, who has only just succeeded Bertie Ahern as Ireland's Taioseach and whose first significant test this was.

The new prime minister now has to attend his first EU summit on June 19-20 and explain to his EU counterparts how he has landed them in such a mess.

Plans for a new permanent President of the European Council and a new European Foreign Minister have to be put into cold storage. So are various efforts to streamline the EU machinery, with fewer votes subject to national vetoes, a new weighting system for qualified majority voting and the latest scheme for a slimmed down commission.

But Cowen is not the only one with a red face. The other major parties in Ireland backed the Yes campaign too. The referendum result amounts to a massive rejection of the whole Irish political establishment.

It is an embarrassment too to the other 26 leaders across Europe who, for fear of a similar outcome, have refused to stage popular votes and left the ratification process to more easily managed parliamentarians.

Critics of the constitutional treaty in their countries will now renew their 'we were robbed' protests, pointing out that in the only country where voters were allowed a say the people have rejected the institutional reforms. Video Watch how single-issue campaigners beat the establishment »
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* Ireland votes no to EU treaty

Indeed, since the voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005 rejected the previous effort to provide the EU with a constitution the question arises whether any EU enterprise of this kind is capable of passing the test of a popular vote.

The Irish referendum result will be particularly sensitive in nearby Britain where Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose party had originally promised a referendum on the old constitution, faces a court action over his refusal to stage one on the near identical treaty.

So where does the EU go from here? What is Plan B?

The difficulty in answering that is that the Lisbon Treaty was Plan B. Plan A was the constitution rejected by the French and the Dutch in 2005. And at present there is no trace of a Plan C.

Could the other 26 countries go ahead on their own, ignoring the Irish vote? No. That would be a complete contradiction of the spirit of the EU.

Could the Irish be invited to have another go? That is what happened when in 2001 they rejected constitutional changes set out at that time in the Nice Treaty. A year later, after a face-saving protocol or two making clear there was no threat to Irish military neutrality, the Irish voted again and this time, on a much higher turnout, backed the treaty.

The difficulty this time is that Cowen has ruled out a second vote and for the EU to push Dublin into another round of voting, after the French and Dutch were not asked to rethink in 2005, would look like an attempt to bully a small country.

That leaves two other possibilities: limping on permanently with the Nice Treaty, designed for a much smaller EU, or going back to the drawing board and starting again. And that last option is one which fills all concerned with dismay.

Not only is the process of constitution-mongering a fractious, divisive and frankly boring exercise, it is one which alienates European citizens from the EU and all its works. They want their politicians to be tackling problems like immigration, energy security and employment, not tinkering endlessly with their institutions.

Some of the roughest words in advance of the Irish vote came from the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner when he said: "It would be very, very troubling that we would not be able to count on the Irish, who counted a lot on Europe's money. The Irish would truly penalize themselves."

Such an implied threat almost certainly proved counter-productive. But it also reflected the frustration that Kouchner and his President Nicholas Sarkozy will feel now.
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On July 1 France takes over the six month revolving presidency of the EU. Sarkozy, true to form, is buzzing with big plans to make Europe politically vital again, promising a big initiative on immigration, a revitalized European defense dimension and a bid to harmonize business taxes (in itself one of the factors in the Irish vote since Ireland has benefited hugely from undercutting others with its low business taxes).

Now Sarkozy , one of the main drivers behind the Lisbon Treaty will have to take time out going back to the same old constitutional questions. Not his idea of fun. Or anybody's.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/06 ... index.html


awww, WAY TO GO IRISH!!!

Despite the result, EU leaders were tonight vowing to press ahead with ratifying the treaty across all members' parliaments.

This just shows that politicians are the same throughout the world disregarding the will of the people is their business.