Taoiseach refuses to rule out second Lisbon vote

by Dave Keating | June 26, 2008 at 04:05 am | 225 views | add comment

Berties out brians in as An Taoiseach Na hEireann

Irish leader Brian Cowen has said that eh hasn't ruled out holding another referendum on the Lisbon refirm treaty, which was voted down in a vote two weeks ago, sending the EU into a panic. Ireland was the only country to hold a public vote on the treaty, which makes structural changes to the EU necessitated by its expansion.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen last night refused to be pinned down on the question of holding a second Lisbon Treaty referendum.

However, Mr Cowen rejected claims there was an ongoing effort to force a referendum on the country, insisting there was "no question" of people being forced to do anything.

Mr Cowen also said he would work to the best of his ability to defend Irish interests and there would be "no coercion, threat, implication or ambivalence" about where the sovereign will of the people resided.

But he did admit that some members of the European Council were "perplexed" by the Irish electorate's rejection of the treaty. Many had also made it clear they had no wish to revisit the text of the treaty and had asked how much time Ireland needed to analyse and reflect on what had happened.

At the same time, the government is scrambling to study the exit polling results to figure out why people voted no. Much of the early polling results show that the largest vote motivator cited by people who voted no was that they did not understand the treaty. Still others thought the treaty did things that it actually didn't.

Ireland's government will commission a study to find out why voters rejected the European Union's reform treaty in a referendum this month, Prime Minister Brian Cowen said on Wednesday.

Cowen said he saw no obvious ways to end the uncertainty in the 27-member bloc over the treaty, originally meant to put an end to more than a decade of institutional wrangling and bolster the EU's economic and political voice on the world stage.

"We will now press on with the necessary analysis and reflection so that we can understand in some depth what has happened and why," Cowen said.

Many of my Irish friends have told me there has been much introspection in the country, with people calling into radio shows in paniced voices breathlessly whispering "what have we done?" now that there is talk of expelling Ireland from the EU or giving it a detached status. Still, others are quite adament about their 'no' vote and have vowed to wage an even bigger 'no' campaign if a second referendum is held. Some want special opt-outs for Ireland similiar to the ones the UK has received. Others don't want any form of a reform treaty to pass, although the reasons for this are unclear.