Irish Government plans to run second Lisbon treaty referendum

The Irish Government bowed to pressure from European leaders yesterday and rang the starting bell on round two of its battle to pass the Lisbon treaty by rerunning the referendum that it lost decisively last summer.

Opponents of the EU treaty immediately announced the formation of a Europe-wide political party to field anti-treaty candidates in all 27 member states in next June's European Parliament elections to campaign against the EU's “growing anti-democratic tendency”. 

The pledge by Brian Cowen, the embattled Irish Prime Minister, to ratify the Lisbon treaty by the end of next year put his political reputation and his Government's future on the line. Mr Cowen could not resist intense lobbying led by President Sarkozy of France to try to salvage a document that was itself drawn up to rescue many of the reforms in the EU constitution that was defeated by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

Declan Ganley, the businessman who led the successful No campaign in Ireland in June, announced yesterday that his group Libertas would try to stand in every EU country. His manifesto would include a range of policies, he said, but concentrate on calling for a new treaty that would be subject to referendums in every country after only Ireland organised such a poll on Lisbon. Every other nation is ratifying though its parliament.

Mr Ganley said: “The Irish Government and the powerful elite in Brussels are showing utter contempt for the democratic decision of the Irish people in rejecting the Lisbon treaty. They tried this with the French, they tried with the Dutch, they are trying with the Irish. It is time to put a stop to this bullying.”

The treaty aims to streamline decision-making by scrapping the national veto in many policy areas, and create a permanent EU president and foreign minister. So far 24 of the 27 nations have ratified it. 

Legally binding protocols on Ireland's military neutrality, and on its independence on tax and family law, were the minimum guarantees needed to sway a sceptical electorate, Mr Cowen told fellow leaders in Brussels.

These sweeteners could be added to the following EU treaty, which will be needed for Croatia to join in 2010. 

Mr Cowen has also demanded that Ireland continue to have a European Commissioner despite the Lisbon treaty's plan to cut the number of top bureaucrats to two thirds the number of member states. The plan was for countries to have a member only in two out of every three commissions but José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, has said that he is in favour of every nation keeping a representative. The Lisbon treaty allows for this to be done by unanimous agreement. 

Within days of the referendum result in June, the view was being privately expressed by Irish officials that, as was the case with the Nice treaty referendum of 2001, it would have to be rerun. But the Fianna Fáil-led coalition Government headed by Mr Cowen is deeply unpopular as it struggles to cope with the consequences of the collapse in Ireland's “Celtic tiger” economic growth. Its rushed budget last month met with widespread anger over cuts to healthcare provision for pensioners, which had to be reversed. 

The most recent opinion poll to include a question on voting intentions over Lisbon, conducted for The Irish Times by MRBI, found 43 per cent in favour, 39 per cent against and 18 per cent undecided.

The first referendum had a high turnout of more than half the Irish electorate, with 53.4 per cent voting against the treaty and 46.6 per cent in favour.  continues here

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