European Union admits fresh treaty problem after Ireland

Czech President Vaclav Klaus declared the treaty “dead” after the Irish vote and the Senate has referred the text to the constitutional court for a ruling not expected before October.

“We are a democracy — even the head of state is allowed his own opinion,” Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg joked. The independent pro-EU minister said he still thought his country would endorse the text by year-end.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek — seen as less keen on the treaty — said on Thursday night: “I am not going to force members of parliament to back Lisbon and I would not bet 100 crowns (4 euros) on a Czech “Yes”.”

The treaty would give EU leaders a long-term president, a stronger foreign policy chief with a real diplomatic service, a more democratic decision-making system and more say for the European and national parliaments.

Sarkozy insisted that without the Lisbon treaty there could be no further enlargement of the Union — a view contradicted by Jansa, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and others.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said the EU must keep its word to aspirants for membership in the Western Balkans and Croatia, top of the queue to join, should not become the first victim of the Irish referendum.

Options mooted to resolve the crisis have included offering assurances to the Irish that the Lisbon Treaty will not undermine their cherished neutrality, deprive them of a commissioner in Brussels, make abortions easier or raise taxes — and then asking them to vote again, as happened once before over an earlier EU treaty.

Prime Minister Brian Cowen said he could not speculate on whether Ireland would have another referendum.

Determined to show voters the EU is not paralyzed and is addressing citizens’ key concerns, the bloc’s leaders asked the European Commission to study the feasibility of tax measures to ease the pain of soaring oil prices and report back in October.

EU officials stressed that agreement to study proposals such as Sarkozy’s idea of capping value-added tax on fuel or an Austrian call for a tax on commodity speculation did not mean they would recommend the measures, widely criticized by others.

1|2

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email