Ireland to Vote Next Year on European Union Treaty

[Marulus]

Ireland to Vote Next Year on European Union Treaty

By REUTERS

Published: November 11, 2007

DUBLIN, Nov. 10 (Reuters) — Ireland is expected to hold a referendum in the first half of next year on a planned treaty to reform the European Union institutions, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said Saturday.

The reform treaty, backed by European Union leaders last month, replaces the planned constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, setting off an institutional crisis in the 27-country union.

This time round, Ireland, whose own Constitution can be amended only by a referendum, is expected to be the only country to ask voters directly to back a treaty that needs to be ratified by all European Union states if it is to take effect from 2009 as planned.

A poll in The Irish Times on Monday showed that just 25 percent of Irish voters planned to back the planned reform treaty in a referendum, while 62 percent did not know how they would vote or had no opinion. The newspaper said that 13 percent of those surveyed intended to reject the treaty.

“At this point, it seems very likely that we will be alone in holding a referendum,” Mr. Ahern said at a conference of European journalists in Dublin. “No decision has yet been taken on a date, but it is likely that we will hold our referendum in the first half of 2008.”

Mr. Ahern said a referendum bill would be presented in Parliament “early in the new year.” If it is approved by lawmakers, the government would then begin campaigning to persuade Irish voters to back the treaty.

Ireland, whose economic boom over the last decade was aided in part by money from the European Union, is generally seen as being among the region’s most pro-European countries, but that has not always guaranteed success at the ballot box in the past.

Mr. Ahern said he was “not hugely surprised” at the number of people polled who did not know how they would vote.

“We must ensure that the public clearly understand the question facing them and why it is important that they vote,” he said. “The government will also be working hard to explain why, for our part, we are certain that the Lisbon Reform Treaty is in the interest of both Ireland and Europe.”

In 2001, Irish voters rejected the previous treaty, intended to enable enlargement of the European Union. That forced the government to hold a second vote, which was widely criticized as undemocratic at the time. A second vote is unlikely to be an option in 2008.

Mr. Ahern said the debate in Ireland would stretch far beyond his country. “Because of this, we can expect people from abroad to try and shape the outcome,” he said.

“For some, particularly those opposed to the European Union, it will be a proxy for a national debate that they wished they could have had in their own country.”

[source]

[IrishThirdPosition]

Hmmm, I wonder if we're going to be asked to vote twice until we get the right answer (in their eyes).

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by IrishThirdPosition

Hmmm, I wonder if we're going to be asked to vote twice until we get the right answer (in their eyes).

Yeah, and a lot of insults will be thrown by the Brit press. The Economist will likely be the worst if Ireland refuses to accept the "new realities".

[Berrocscir]

At least you're being asked to vote

[Errigal]

It shouldn't even have gotten to this stage. The diplomats should have shut down this relentless push for greater integration years ago. They claim that the EU was founded largely to avoid another war in Europe; well they should look at the history of the United States without rose-coloured glasses for once. If the EU advocates demand greater and greater centralized power they may bring about in Europe the conditions which existed before the American Civil War.