EU leaders hope to save their ambitious reform treaty at a two-day summit that started yesterday by cutting a deal with Ireland on sovereignty issues in an effort to persuade reluctant Irish voters who have rejected the pact once to say “yes” in a new vote.
Also on the agenda were new plans to stem rising unemployment, strategies to prevent future banking crises and Jose Manuel Barroso’s bid for a second five-year term as president of the European Commission, the EU executive.
Ireland is leaning hard on its EU counterparts to accept a draft set of legal assurances meant to ease public concerns over the reform treaty.
Irish voters rejected the treaty in a referendum in June last year, stalling the ratification of the charter that is meant to streamline how the 27-nation bloc is run and bolster its role on the world stage.
Voters had feared the treaty would undermine their national sovereignty, notably laws on taxation, worker rights, health, education standards and abortion, as well as infringe upon Ireland’s cherished neutrality.
To allay those worries, the Irish government has drafted legal texts that declare and guarantee the EU treaty “does not affect” these national policies.
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said ahead of the summit that he was “confident and hopeful” EU countries would endorse the guarantees at the summit, clearing the way for his government to call a new vote on the treaty, which diplomats expect in either September or October.
However, approval of those legal assurances is being held up over what form they will take. Britain and others are worried that if the guarantees take the form of binding protocols it will reopen discussion on the treaty in national parliaments.
Protocols could force EU member states to reopen their ratification of the treaty as they need unanimous backing from all members before they are legally binding.
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