Word: referendum
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Lisbon Treaty is designed to streamline E.U. decision-making now that the club has expanded to 27 members, but the Irish referendum - the only such vote in the E.U. - has thrown the entire project in disarray...
...Sarkozy and other E.U. leaders are now pinning hopes of salvaging the Treaty on another referendum, perhaps in a year's time. Officially, the bruised Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen was treated with sympathy at the Brussels summit, and there was universal recognition that the Irish vote had to be "respected". But behind the scenes, Cowen - tellingly banished to the far end of the family photograph of E.U. leaders - was alternately cajoled and bullied to run another vote...
...there is no guarantee a second vote would win. The referendum got nixed thanks to a bewildering array of mostly unrelated objections, including abortion, neutrality, tax sovereignty, economic prospects, the loss of an Irish E.U. commissioner and the deregulation of the taxi trade. Indeed, an E.U. survey of 2,000 Irish "no" voters said the main reason they rejected the Treaty was that they did not understand...
...Lisbon treaty, the fruit of seven years of interminable negotiations, cannot enter into force unless ratified by all 27 member states. Eighteen have ratified it in their parliaments and a further eight are due to do so later this year. Only Ireland chose to ratify by referendum...
...Britain and the Czech Republic, might thwart such an effort. But then the majority of the member states could try to create a two-speed Europe: the Irish, British and others reluctant to integrate would be left outside a new club. If that course is pursued, Ireland's referendum will have set off a chain of events that breaks up the E.U. as we know...