The EU's unanimity rule

Rudolph Cini has no grounds for complaining that it is "undemocratic" for the Irish to block the Lisbon Treaty. (Moving Ahead On The Lisbon Treaty, June 28).

The Irish have never agreed that decisions on changing the EU treaties could be taken by what Mr Cini would presumably regard as a "democratic" process, one that relied on some kind of majority voting across the EU as a whole.

Nor, for that matter, have the Maltese agreed to that, or any other nation. From the very start it has always been the rule that proposed treaty amendments cannot come into effect unless they have been ratified by all of the member states. Not only is that unanimity rule embedded in the present EU treaties (Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union), it would also be retained under the Lisbon Treaty.

If there is a case for moving to a system whereby the treaties could be revised by a majority vote, then perhaps that should be put forward as an amendment to treaties.

But under the present rules, that amendment like all others could only be accepted if it had been ratified by all member states - and how many of them would agree to it?