Britannia Radio

TELEGRAPH   10.12.08
EC hints that Ireland will vote again on EU treaty
The European Commission has given its strongest sign yet that Ireland 
will hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty next autumn.

    By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

The current EC session, due to expire at the end of October 2009, 
will be extended in order to allow the vote to take place.

Commission President José Manuel Barroso announced the move in the 
clearest indication yet that Ireland will vote again next October on 
the controversial treaty that was drafted to replace the European 
Union Constitution.

Mr Barroso has signalled that next June's European elections will be 
held under current rules and that his Commission will continue in a 
caretaker role until 2010, the deadline an EU summit will set for the 
Lisbon Treaty to enter into force.

"If there is a need for the prolongation of the Commission for some 
weeks or months it is perfectly acceptable," he said. "There can be 
no grey zones between the treaties, it would be bad for the stability 
of the system."

Negotiations on how to manage the appointment of a new EU executive 
next year, whether under existing Nice Treaty or new Lisbon Treaty 
rules, have been central to persuading an isolated Irish government 
to hold a rerun referendum.

Under the Lisbon Treaty the current rule of one Commissioner for each 
member state was to be axed, one of the issues that was taken up by 
No campaigners and which dominated the Irish referendum campaign.

The question is also one of timing because while the current Nice 
Treaty preserves the one country, one commissioner principle it also 
states that when the EU consists of 27 countries, as it does now, the 
"commission shall be less than the number of member states".

If the current Commission's time was allowed to expire before a 
second Irish referendum next October then one seat at the Brussels 
table would be lost, jeopardising a second vote in Ireland.

Mr Barroso pledged his support for a guarantee that Ireland, and all 
other 26 EU member states, would keep their own Commissioner.
"It should not be a problem to have a commission with 27 or more 
members," he said. "If this is a very important condition for 
Ireland, I personally will support it."

Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, was in Brussels yesterday for EU 
talks on climate change and backed Mr Barroso's plan to win over the 
Irish.
"It is a matter for Ireland but it is important to get the Lisbon 
Treaty in place. We went to a lot of trouble to renegotiate it," he 
said.

The Lisbon Treaty, rejected by the Irish last June, is redrafted 
version of the EU Constitution thrown out by French and Dutch voters 
in 2005.
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BBC ONLINE    11.12.08
Irish ready to hold new EU vote

The Irish Republic is willing to hold a second referendum on the EU's 
reform treaty if given certain guarantees from the EU, a spokesman 
has told the BBC.

Those legally binding guarantees are included in draft conclusions 
due to be presented to EU leaders at a summit getting under way in 
Brussels.

The Lisbon Treaty has been on ice since being rejected by Irish 
voters in June.

The summit beginning in Brussels is also due to take crucial 
decisions on EU measures to tackle climate change.

The proposal for a second referendum is included in draft conclusions 
which are being presented by the current holders of the EU 
presidency, France, and which have been seen by the BBC.
According to the draft, the Irish government says "it is committed to 
seeking ratification" of the Lisbon Treaty by end of October next year.

An Irish government spokesman told the BBC that it was "seeking 
legally binding instruments to address the concerns of the Irish 
people", and that once it got those assurances, it would present "a 
roadmap for ratification", that would include another referendum.

The EU is set to offer guarantees that the the treaty will not affect 
three main areas of concern to Irish "No" voters - abortion, Irish 
neutrality and taxation, says the BBC's Europe editor Mark Mardell.
Ireland is also likely to be able to keep its EU commissioner. [Why 
don’t they let all of us in on this ?  -cs]

EU leaders will pore over and work on the summit conclusions before 
they are published on Friday.
===================
EU OBSERVER  - Comment -  11.12.08
[Comment] The Irish government has betrayed its people
DECLAN GANLEY AND JENS-PETER BONDE

  COMMENT - The French president yesterday told the group leaders of 
the European parliament that he has made a deal with the Irish 
government to hold a second referendum in Ireland to ratify the 
Lisbon treaty first rejected on 12 June by 53 percent of Irish voters.

None of the representatives of the Irish people who voted No to the 
Lisbon Treaty were consulted by the Irish government before they 
struck a deal with the French Presidency. The Irish government has 
simply ignored the result of the referendum and betrayed those people 
who voted No in the majority.

Government ministers, including the prime minister, have been urging 
other countries to "isolate" Ireland by ratifying the treaties so the 
Irish could sweat it out and then change their mind.

And what do they deliver as concessions to the Irish voters? Not one 
single word to be changed in the treaty that was also rejected by the 
French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005 when it went under the 
name of "Constitution".

Not one word or legal obligation will be changed. The same content 
will simply be put in a new envelope, just as Valery Giscard 
d'Estaing said about the change from the Constitution to the Lisbon 
Treaty. But this time, not even the headline or the wording will be 
changed.

It is the same text that was rejected.

It is legally doubtful if it is possible to repeat a binding 
referendum on the same text in the same parliamentary period.

In the new envelope, there will be a lot of nice words in 
declarations. They have not the slightest legal value. They will 
neither change anything in the treaties nor hinder the court in 
Luxembourg from decide directly against whatever the declarations say.

Then, they will have the promise of a commissioner from each member 
state. Fine. But the Irish commissioner will be picked by a majority 
of prime ministers and presidents in the EU. The Irish government can 
come up with "suggestions", but other member states decide.

It would indeed be a concession if they were to change the treaty and 
allow every member state to elect its own commissioner, and it would 
be democratic progress if we could elect our commissioner in direct 
elections together with the elections to the European Parliament.

The Irish government has simply given in and will not even insist on 
the right of Ireland to nominate its own commissioner.
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Declan Ganley is president of Libertas and Jens-Peter Bonde is 
president of the EU Democrats and member of the European Parliament 
from 1979-2008