EU crisis in Ireland

French president to discuss EU crisis in Ireland
6 days ago

DUBLIN (AFP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy heads to Dublin Monday to discuss the way forward after Ireland's shock rejection of a key European Union (EU) treaty, plunging the bloc into fresh turmoil.

Protests are expected during the flying visit, including talks with Prime Minister Brian Cowen as well as pro- and anti-Lisbon Treaty lobbyists, after Sarkozy sparked outrage by suggesting Ireland should vote again.

One group, the Campaign Against the EU Constitution, plans a "No Means No" demo outside government offices, while others demand that Sarkozy -- who holds the EU's rotating presidency -- accept the will of the Irish people.

Party leaders are also reportedly unhappy they have not been granted individual meetings with the French leader but instead invited to round-table talks at the French Embassy with lobby groups.

Sarkozy insists he is not coming to Ireland to tell the country what to do, but to "listen and understand" why a majority of its citizens voted against the treaty in a June 12 referendum.

Ireland was the only state to hold a referendum on the document, which has to be ratified by all countries in the bloc to take effect. France took over the six-month rotating presidency of the 27-member EU this month.

Eurosceptics in Ireland and elsewhere claim the Lisbon treaty is little more than a cosmetically-altered version of the doomed EU constitution torpedoed by French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005.

The potential loss of sovereignty and control to Brussels, plus fears about changes to Irish totems like military neutrality and anti-abortion legislation, were also key campaigning factors for the "no" lobbyists.

Irish and French government officials have played down the significance of concrete developments arising from Monday's meetings.

But amid talk of a "two-tier Europe", Sarkozy has set a deadline of the end of this year to overcome the impasse, ahead of elections next year to the European Parliament.

To that end, the man credited with doing the most to secure the treaty's rejection in Ireland, millionaire businessman Declan Ganley, is looking to field more than 400 candidates at the vote, Britain's Sunday Telegraph said.

A vote for his lobby group Libertas would be a vote against the Lisbon Treaty, he said, predicting to the newspaper that the elections will be a "people's referendum" on the document.

Ganley, who says he supports a "strong, prosperous and democratically legitimate" Europe, has said that he will ask Sarkozy when he meets him Monday to "accept that the Irish people have rejected the Lisbon Treaty".

A spokeswoman for Sinn Fein, the only mainstream Irish political party to campaign against the treaty, echoed his views, telling AFP: "There can't be any re-run. A new treaty is required. He (Sarkozy) needs to listen to this..."

"The people of Europe want a better deal... The Lisbon treaty represents a bad deal for Ireland and the EU and the developing world and we believe a better deal is possible," she added.

Brendan Young, from the CAEUC coalition of mainly leftist groups, said he expected Sarkozy to put pressure on Taoiseach (prime minister) Cowen to hold a second vote, as Ireland did after rejecting a previous treaty.

But he added: "It will be very difficult for Cowen... to turn around and do a second referendum on a high turn out and a high 'no' vote... It will be very difficult for them (the government) to get it through."