Main focus of Monday, June 22, 2009

Ireland wants a new referendum

The Irish want to hold a new referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. At the EU summit in Brussels the Union's 27 heads of state and government agreed on concessions they were ready to make. Ireland may retain its sovereignty in tax policy and the ban on abortion. The Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen reckons the referendum will be held at the beginning of October.

The Sunday Business Post - Ireland

Ireland should say No to the Treaty of Lisbon once more because the EU ignores the will of voters, writes Vincent Browne in the liberal Sunday Business Post: "One of the main reasons for opposing this Lisbon Treaty ... is that it is a con job. It was devised to get through the essence of the EU constitution, which was defeated by the people of France and the Netherlands. ... To get it through by the subterfuge of so disguising its nature that governments would be able to claim it did not need the ratification of their people. We are being asked to hurry up and get it right this time around, so that the prospect of the British people having a say is removed, since they certainly would say No. ... For the first time, via the Lisbon Treaty, the 'dogs-of-war' European armaments industry, has got its mitts on the EU via the European Defence Agency, and we should have none of it. Not just 'we, the people of Ireland' but 'we, the people of Europe'. We might owe it to the governments and parliaments of Europe to vote Yes this time, but there is a higher obligation to the people of Europe to vote No again." (21/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Constitution, » Ireland
All available articles from » Vincent Browne

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

Europe needs active reformers, writes the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung with reference to the new Irish referendum: "The most important challenge facing Europe is its re-Europeanisation. For only if it can manage to convince the new member states that the European idea is about more than just the absence of war with a major redistribution of tax money in its own favour, and that only if the old European countries can be brought back to the path of integration, only then can the EU be big and at the same time strong. … Even if it comes years too late, the Treaty of Lisbon can still do what needs to be done in terms of rescue work. … However all this can only help if above all the big countries remember their European calling. But at the moment Berlin, Paris, Rome, Madrid and London are mainly preoccupied with themselves and fitting themselves into the European status quo. It's absurd: after ten years the reform of the EU is within touching distance, but Europe has lost its reformers." (22/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » EU Constitution, » Germany, » France, » United Kingdom, » Spain, » Ireland, » Europe
All available articles from » Martin Winter

De Volkskrant - Netherlands

The left-liberal daily De Volkskrant is optimistic that the EU will find a way out of its crisis, writing that the Union hasn't worked badly even without the Treaty of Lisbon: "This new vote can put an end to the identity crisis into which the European Union sunk after the rejection of the Constitution by the French and the Dutch in 2005. For supporters of the Constitution this was a major catastrophe. But in practice it wasn't all that bad at all. It seems that the European Union functions pretty well even without 'Lisbon'. The EU has certainly not been idle in the past years, a fact that can be clearly seen in the climate package, one of the EU's most important law packages. Nevertheless it will be a good thing when the EU finally puts an end to the dragging debate over the reform of the Union. ... Let the Irish once more have their say on 'Lisbon'. But then let's call it quits. Whether it's a Yes or a No, the EU is certainly not hankering for another reform adventure." (22/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Constitution, » Ireland, » Europe

Népszabadság - Hungary

The Hungarian daily Népszabadság evaluates the relevance of the treaties of Nice and Lisbon for the policies of the European Union: "On the one hand since the European elections the EU must proceed according to the provisions of the current Treaty of Nice, on the other hand it is already being guided by the spirit of the Lisbon treaty, which will hopefully come into force soon. … Under the provisions of the Treaty of Nice the next EU executive [the Commission] should in future be smaller than it has been up to now. Notwithstanding: at the EU summit [of the European Council] in December the heads of government and state agreed that the principle 'one country, one commissioner' should be continued. But here too the fact remains that without the definitive ratification of the Lisbon treaty this, too, cannot be applied." (22/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Miklós Blahó

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