Word: referendums
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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...
...sovereignty. Such "explanatory protocols" would involve no changes to the treaty's text, and therefore little or no need for other governments to ratify the document. "Once re-ratification has been completed in the 26, it would be entirely appropriate for the Irish government to call for a second referendum," says Daniel Gros, Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). But he warned that stakes would be much higher. "This referendum would be about a different question: does Ireland wish to join the 26 with the Lisbon Treaty in force? At this point, another 'no' would effectively mean...
...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...