This adds flesh and detail to the information I sent out in my earlier
“Light at the end of ONE tunnel ?”
on 11/6/09.
ANY delay makles Cameron’s pledge of a referendum here that much more likely!
Christina Speight
TELEGRAPH
13.6.09
Lisbon Treaty may have to be approved for second time
Britain may have to approve the Lisbon Treaty for a second time if the EU grants Ireland substantial concessions in an attempt to persuade its voters to back it in a referendum later this year.
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
A new Commons vote could prove explosive and would be seized on by the Tories and UKIP who made big gains in the recent European elections on the back of their opposition to the agreement.
Last year, Irish voters rejected the treaty which will increase the power in Brussels power and create a new EU president and euro diplomatic service.
They will vote on the document again this autumn and the EU is working on a number of opt-outs to offer as sweeteners in an attempt to get it through this time.
The Irish government is seeking legally binding “protocols” to the treaty to show voters it has won substantial changes since the rejection last June.
But legally-binding opt-outs would have to be ratified by a separate parliamentary vote in Britain, either straight away or when Croatia joins the EU next year.
In both scenarios, British ministers are concerned that concessions given to the Irish because of a referendum rejection might reignite demands for Britain to get a better deal.
EU officials and diplomats are now said to be tying themselves in knots in an attempt to deliver a “safe package” that will not require another Commons vote.
The British concerns forced the cancellation of a key meeting of EU ambassadors on Thursday and frantic rewriting of legal texts.
New documents setting out Irish Lisbon Treaty guarantees on abortion, the right to life, education and the family with a separate declaration on workers’ rights have been delayed until next Tuesday, just two days before the Prime Minister meets with other EU leaders at a Brussels summit.
“We must avoid a situation where guarantees to Ireland use language or words that could open up the Treaty in the House of Commons,” said a senior British source.
[Such a “source” clearly speak’s for Brown - not Britain -cs]
“If Ireland which held a referendum gets a better deal than Britain it makes Gordon Brown look pretty stupid after he went the distance to avoid a referendum,” said an EU official.
[He’s a bit more realistic and honest! -cs]
Micheal Martin, the Irish foreign minister, has admitted that countries, such as Britain, face their own “domestic issues” over the legal guarantees.
“We have to be careful that in getting what we want we do not upset procedures for others,” he said.
Britain is not alone in fearing that taking a protocol through national parliaments could unravel the fragile compromises surrounding the Lisbon Treaty, drawn up to replace the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
The Dutch and Poles, who like Britain forced some limited declarations to dilute the Lisbon Treaty’s bill of EU rights and to protect scrutiny by national parliaments, also fear opening old political wounds.
Britain loses 40 national vetoes under the Lisbon Treaty which also creates a new EU president and euro diplomatic service under the control of a “European foreign minister”.
[and much more importantly it provides for future amendments to be carried through without the need for full-scale Europen-wide debate, thus locking us up for ever -cs]
Margot Wallstrom, the European Commission vice-president, said: “We have to achieve two things – give the Irish the guarantees and the texts that they need and at the same time not reopen the treaty for re-ratification in other member states.”
[Ooh! That would be terrible to let member states decide for themselves - now wouldn’t it? -cs]
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