Word: lisbon
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...chorus girl. In public, there was hurt talk of "respect" for the vote. In private, there were twinges of panic. At a summit in Brussels the following week, Europe's leaders agreed to give the Irish four months to find a way forward; the Union will return to the Lisbon treaty in October. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating E.U. presidency, has set a deadline of the end of the year for Europe to overcome the Irish problem. He has traveled to Dublin on a listening tour of Irish voters, backpedaling from his intimations that they...
When the results came in, Mary Claire Connellan felt ill. The news that Ireland had voted no in a referendum on the European Union's Lisbon treaty on June 12 left her "shaky and sick." Exhaustion didn't help: in the run-up to the vote, the 25-year-old stagiaire - an E.U. intern - had flown back to her native Ireland to canvass for a yes. For Connellan, the promise of a Europe freed from the ways of the past has long been an ideal. "I've seen the damage nationalism can do," she says. "Coming from Ireland...
...didn't work. All the cheery T shirts in the world and the backing of Ireland's major political parties couldn't win the day. Irish voters were told that Lisbon would mean their sons would be conscripted into a European army, that abortion would be legalized and that there were plans to implant microchips in Irish children. Connellan met voters convinced that Brussels would impose a one-child policy. And more potent even than the scare stories, says Connellan, was the confusion. Irish voters - many of whom cheerfully professed to being staunchly pro-European - simply didn't know what...
...There are too many issues on the French presidency agenda," said Hugo Brady, of the London-based Centre for European Reform. He warned that instead of overextending himself - and trying to resolve the irresolvable Lisbon Treaty morass - Sarkozy should limit himself to a few key policy issues that the E.U. can rally round...
...omens are not good. Sarkozy has already raised hackles by warning the E.U. would not be able to enlarge without the Lisbon Treaty, and by blaming E.U. Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson for the Irish "no" vote. He has also vowed to defend the E.U.'s controversial agricultural subsidies, threatening to block any deal at the World Trade Organization that jeopardizes Europe's farming industry. And for someone who sets so much on his emollient charm, Sarkozy still has a grating relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose support is crucial if any of the French initiatives are to succeed...