The collapse of the Czech government, which holds the rotating EU presidency, makes Ireland's talks on a new EU treaty more complex before a second vote on the document this year, Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin said.
"Now we have to see how things evolve with the Czech presidency and who we will be negotiating with," Mr Martin said in an interview in Dublin today. "That's a bit more complex than we would have anticipated."
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek will head a caretaker government after losing a no-confidence vote late yesterday.
President Vaclav Klaus, who has described himself as an EU dissident, will choose someone to set up a new cabinet or dissolve the parliament if those efforts fail.
The Czech government collapsed after losing a parliamentary no-confidence vote over its handling of the economic crisis.
The lower house of Parliament voted 101-96 to declare no confidence in the three-party coalition government, after four politicians broke rank with their parties and voted with the opposition. Three members were absent from the vote.
The collapse complicates the Government's plans to approve the Lisbon Treaty after a veto in a referendum last year plunged nations back into wrangling over how to modernise the 27- nation bloc's decision-making system. Ireland plans to hold the ballot in the second half of this year.
Ireland was the only country to hold a national referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which required the ratification of all member states. The Czech Republic's Senate has yet to approve the treaty and Mr Klaus said on February 19th he was "not ready to answer" whether he will sign it.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said the current political situation will make ratification more difficult.
Ireland's other major challenge is trying to control a swelling deficit as the economy heads for a 6.5 per cent contraction this year, according to Government forecasts. Mr Martin said the Government will take the actions that are "necessary" to tackle the shortfall.
Asked about comparisons between Ireland and Iceland, Mr Martin said there are "fundamental differences" between the two nations. "We're still in a difficult space, but our membership of the EU and the euro zone is a fundamental safety net," he said.
European Commission President Jose Barroso pressed all political leaders not to use this political crisis in a way to put the Lisbon Treaty as hostage of the domestic problems. This would not be fair to the other countries of Europe.
The banking crisis, a deepening recession and last year's cutoff of Russian gas supplies to parts of Europe have laid bare the weaknesses of the EU's current structure, highlighting national governments' powers and relegating the central EU authorities to a secondary role.
Signed in Lisbon in December 2007, the treaty aims to fix those shortcomings. It would create the position of full-time EU president, strengthen the foreign-policy chief and give more power to the democratically elected European Parliament.
Bloomberg