Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
EU treaty 'still alive' as Irish say no
The European Commission put on a brave face yesterday in the wake of Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Reform Treaty, which has thrown the EU into crisis.
It could not have been a worse Friday the 13th for the bloc as Irish voters decided to reject a treaty which had already been amended following its rejection by France and the Netherlands in referendums three years ago.
"We recognise the Irish vote but ratification from the other member states has to continue. The treaty is still alive," Commission President José Manuel Barroso declared in Brussels after the bad news broke from Dublin. "Our position is very clear. Eighteen member states have already ratified the Lisbon Treaty while one rejected it.
We must now continue with the ratification process in the other member states while continuing in a collective way to find a solution on how to move forward."
According to current rules the treaty has to be ratified by all member states before it comes into force.
The Irish vote means that plans to have it come into force next January 1 have fizzled out and the EU will now have to decide on how to find a way out, if there is one.
The main discussion will move on to Brussels where EU leaders will be meeting at the end of next week in their mid-yearly traditional summit.
President Barroso said the Irish Prime Minister will give a presentation to EU leaders and also explain how his country intends to help resolve this issue.
"This is a collective responsibility. All 27 member states already signed the treaty and they have a collective responsibility to ratify. That is why we need to continue moving forward. The Irish rejection did not solve the issues which the treaty tried to address such as a better decision making and more efficiency in an enlarged EU. We will now have to see how to reach that aim while respecting everyone's decision."
Malta is affected by the Irish rejection as new provisions negotiated by the government and included in the treaty will not come into effect as expected next January.
One of the first effects will be that Malta will lose its sixth seat in the European Parliament provided for through the new treaty.
Maltese MEP Simon Busuttil called the result very disappointing.
"It is bad news for Europe and bad news for Malta as we now stand to lose our sixth seat in the European Parliament," he said when contacted.
"There is no question that the Irish 'no' vote puts the entire ratification process in trouble. Perhaps the time has come for countries who want to take European integration forward to be able to do so without being held hostage by recalcitrant countries."
Member states who did not want to go along should be free to do so but why should they be able to stop all the rest from moving on, he asked.
"Perhaps it is time for them to decide whether they want to stay in the European Union."
Foreign Minister Tonio Borg was equally disappointed. "The more vociferous 'no' vote has won because of the low turnout," Dr Borg told timesofmalta.com.
He said that unless the new impasse was resolved within about six months, the allocation of Malta's sixth seat in the European Parliament as from the next elections was unlikely to happen.
The Irish referendum was the only one in the EU as all the other 26 member states decided to ratify the treaty through their parliamentary chambers. Close to 54 per cent of voters said No to the treaty, as about half the three million Irish voters turned out at the polling stations.
Ireland, one of the main beneficiaries of EU accession, had already stunned the EU in 2001 when a similar referendum had rejected the Nice Treaty. The solution was another referendum a year later when the Irish then decided to endorse it and end the EU's temporary crises.
The Lisbon Treaty is the product of eight years of discussions between member states and the European Parliament aimed at making the EU and its decision-making structures leaner and more efficient following the latest enlargements which saw the EU growing from 15 to 27 member states.
The treaty reshapes the 27-nation EU's institutions to take account of the union's enlargement since 2004 by creating a full-time president, increasing the European Parliament's powers and extending the areas to which the EU's system of qualified majority voting applies.
Eighteen member states have already ratified the treaty, including Malta with a unanimous vote in the House of Representatives.
The others are Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
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Christopher Grech
Jun 16th 2008, 09:40
It is a relief that the Irish said no. No to political arrogance, the world over. You see sly politicians always try to us parliament and NOT the people to vote on what they want. The people always lose when politicians get thier way. I am a regretful pro-EU voter. When I discovered who the New World Order is, then things will never look the same again. The elites, world rulers, want to have a world government, to enslave you, and the EU is just a pawn. Think it is not true? The bible says so, and it is always right. If you are not lazy find out for yourself, and do a search on who is pulling the world strings. Do a search by Illiminati or New WORLD ORDER. Fact not fiction. People are lured by money and the economy, and when this honeymoon is over, you will know the real teeth behind politicians, very very soon!
Jason Spiteri
Jun 15th 2008, 10:50
People in the old Member States who surely have nothing to learn about democracy from the likes of Eurocrats like Busuttil keep saying 'No' when asked to vote on EU matters precisely because of this type of anti-democratic reaction they know will come out of Brussels and their leaders. They know that if they keep giving more powers to the EU, when the time comes to decide on fundamental issues that affect the deepest concerns in their societies - such as the islamization of Europe and the Turkish Accession - their voice will not count. Cyprus' veto will not count. Referenda will be systematically ignored in favour of tippex solutions and renaming a constitution to a treaty and a treaty to an inter-governmental agreement and so on until the pre-determined EU agenda is fulfilled. Nationalists like Busuttil rightly criticise the decisions taken by the MLP on its leadership in disregard for what the majority of voters 'out there' demand: they would do well to realise that the EU they so love is made of the same stuff.
Robert Mifsud
Jun 15th 2008, 09:36
Has democracy as we know it reached it's maximum potential? Is it justice when a few disinterested individuals have sufficient voting power to hold back 27 countries? Perhaps instead of using up it's energies on imposing democracy on others, the west should take a long hard introspective look at the democratic processes being used.
albert leone ganado
Jun 15th 2008, 00:16
First it was the French and the dutch ordinary citizens who said no to the constitution. Then it was the turn of the the Irish folk to say no to the Lisbon treaty they being the only ones given a chance to make a democratic choice.
But let our local politicians please not lose heart, they will have a chance to blindly ratify for a third time, fourth time or indeed how long it takes to for Brussels to get a general Yes vote.
For indeed the Brussels eurocrat have defined a new meaning for democracy where a Yes vote is irrevocable and a No vote results in a new raft of shenanigans until it eventually will be turned into some sort of unanimous YES. They almost succeeded this time with a score of 26 out of 27. Where it not for the ungrateful IRISH they would have been home this time round.
Once they get this YES vote the qualified majority will kick in and then Brusselocracy will replace democracy
Geoffrey Mifsud
Jun 14th 2008, 23:47
@ Ramon Casha
i have no idea where you studied the rules of democracy...but on this side of the world we have one chance every so many years for an election, and one chance to drive your point across in a referendum. it is totally absurd and a twist of democratic principles to say something like you said...we lost, but we can always have another referendum and in the meantime try to influence the public at large to vote exactly as we want him to vote...what if the 2nd referendum fails again..shall we go for a third, fourth!!!
'ensuring the people understand the ramificiations' is very dangerous. its like you want to tell the people who voted that they are all wrong just because you dont agree with how they voted! what you are suggesting smells of Zimbabwe...not Europe!
what Europe has to do now is take account of this vote and since this Treaty is so vital ask all the Member States to seek ratification by referendum. in this way we will know exactly what the people in Europe really want.
it will be interesting to see how the situation develops.
Dr. John Zammit
Jun 14th 2008, 16:53
If the European Union continues like this the union is going to dissentigrade. It's either the majority decides or else if Ireland or any other country does not agree they should be asked to leave the union. With this situation there is no difference between the European Union and the Soviet Union!?! Last May there was a conference asking whether the EU will be there after 50 years, if we continue like this not even after ten years.
john watson
Jun 14th 2008, 16:49
so much for E.U. democracy!
The European Commission stated that unless the treaty was ratified by all member states it would be buried - and now they are scrambling to find ways of forcing it on member states at any price! Well done the Irish - at least they were given the opportunity to express their wishes. Watch the panic in Brussels now their "Gravy Train" is in damger of being de-railed!
maria curmi
Jun 14th 2008, 15:58
Barroso's comment of continuing the ratification process is Power against Democracy that’s why like in Malta and Europe treaty was ratified in Parliament
Trevor Byrne
Jun 14th 2008, 15:29
What a ridiculous but typical response from Maltese political figures.
Ireland is the only country in Europe who actually had the bravery first off but also the democratic rights in place to allow this treaty to be voted on by its people.
It is an absolute terrible shame that all other countries in Europe do NOT have the democratic rules in place to allow their own people to vote on such an important but ultimately flawed treaty. The Irish did not ruin your future and government begging opportunities, they saved your people and your country from a minority elite and undemocratic grouping within the present EU structure. You should be thanking the Irish people for that, not lambasting their democratic vote, of which your people didn't even get the chance to carry out.
Ramon Casha
Jun 14th 2008, 14:11
@Geoffrey
Various polls in Ireland indicated that the reason it was rejected was that most of the people felt they weren't fully explained what the treaty would mean for them. If that is the case, it is not unreasonable to try to address that problem, ensuring that they all understand the treaty's ramifications and then ask the question again. It's still entirely democratic.
Geoffrey Mifsud
Jun 14th 2008, 11:35
This is indeed a crisis but Barroso's comment of continuing the ratification process is absurd and puts the whole democratic process itself in serious crisis now.
Ireland was the only country that used the referendum process to ratify the Treaty. In all the other countries, the Treaty was ratified in Parliament. I wonder what the result would be if all the countries use the same system adopted by Ireland.
I have always been a more than pro-EU supporter, but certainly not at all costs. The deomocratic rules have to be respected and particularly the rules created by the EU itself for such Treaties to be adopted have to be respected in full. it is all too easy to try and change the rules of the game now that the game has been played and the result is known.
Dr Busuttil is perfectly right - this is a disappointing result especially for Malta that risks to lose so much from this negative result. His two-tier Europe approach has been advocated for many years and there are arguments in favour and against of this. It can send Europe in a chaotic grouping of 1st and 2nd class groups of countries!