EU OBSERVER 19.5.09n UK
Call for Ireland to set referendum date
HONOR MAHONY
on the Lisbon Treaty at an EU summit in June.
The call by Czech Europe minister Stefan Fule followed a meeting of
EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday (18 May) where member
states agreed to draw up strong legal guarantees to try and persuade
Irish voters to vote yes in its second referendum.
Mr Fule said he believed the government should make other member
states "aware of the date" during the traditional summer gathering of
EU leaders on 18-19 June once the guarantees have been agreed,
although he noted that it is "first of all the sovereign decision of
the Irish authorities."
The issue of the date did not come up during the actual meeting
itself, an EU diplomat said. [Then why does the headline say it did?
-cs]
The government is currently working with the Czech EU presidency on
three legal guarantees that the Lisbon Treaty will not affect Irish
sovereignty in tax, defence and ethical issues. There will also be a
further declaration on workers' rights, but this will not be legally
binding. [Presumably these will apply to all of us too? -cs]
Irish officials have indicated the texts will be wrapped up in the
week before the June summit and say they will start bilateral
meetings with EU partners next week on the final wording of the
guarantees.
So far, Dublin has refused to be drawn on a date until the guarantees
are finalised, despite some impatience in some EU circles.
It is likely to ask Irish voters to go the polls on the Lisbon
question around the beginning of October.
Although the topic is of great interest in Brussels, the Irish
government has been too preoccupied with dealing with the fall-out
from the global economic crisis and what it will mean for the local
and European elections on 5 June to do much publicly about the Lisbon
Treaty.
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