Sat, Jun 21, 2008 page1

• EU heads delay decision on Lisbon treaty until October

  • AFP
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  EU heads at a Brussels summit yesterday delayed until October a decision on how to tackle Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon treaty, while seeking to overcome Czech resistance to the key charter.

  “The European Council agreed to Ireland’s suggestion to come back to this issue at its meeting of 15 October, 2008 in order to consider the way forward,” said a draft summit statement.

  In it the leaders noted that, although 19 EU nations have ratified the treaty designed to streamline the bloc’s operations as it expands, “more time was needed to analyze the situation.”

  The only reference to whether the seven countries who have not endorsed the treaty should forge ahead simply said: “The ratification process continues in the other countries.”

  The document, which could yet change in a day of political wrangling, made no reference to the importance the leaders attach to the treaty.

  While giving Ireland four months to come up with a plan to move forward with the treaty — handed a resounding “no” by more than 53 percent of Irish voters in a June 12 referendum — the EU leaders were keen to prevent any other member states from dealing the charter the fatal blow.

  Another setback could torpedo the charter in the way French and Dutch voters did in 2005 for its predecessor, the EU constitution.

  Czech President Vaclav Klaus already said last week that the Lisbon treaty was dead, after the Irish rejection.

  Belgian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Olivier Chastel said yesterday that the Czechs were “not willing to listen to reason.”

  But EU leaders made a concession to Prague on the second day of their summit to recognize the Czech Republic’s particular difficulties with ratification.

  In an addition to their joint statement, they “noted that the Czech Republic cannot complete the ratification process until the constitutional court delivers its positive opinion on the accordance of the Lisbon treaty with the Czech constitutional order.”

  Prague’s parliamentary ratification was suspended in late April as it was still going through the lower chamber, after the Senate demanded that the constitutional court rule on whether the treaty conforms with the Constitution.

  Arriving for the negotiations, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he did not think the Czechs would block the treaty.

  “I think that the treaty will be ratified in the rest of the countries,” he said.

  Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said that he hoped Prague could endorse the text by January, but that obstacles remained.

  During the lengthy first-day summit session, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen pleaded for more time to plot a way out of the EU’s reform crisis.

  Elsewhere in their summit talks and the draft conclusions, the EU leaders tackled soaring oil and food prices and the environment.

  The EU also implicitly threatened more sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s regime, saying it stood ready to take further action against those behind the political violence.

  Next month the French take over the EU’s rotating presidency and President Nicolas Sarkozy at the summit appeared to be a man in a hurry.

  He said on Thursday he plans to visit Ireland next month in search of an answer to the treaty crisis.
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