A FORMER Danish Liberal foreign minister has urged Ireland to “do the rest of Europe a favour” and withdraw from the EU.
Uffe Elleman-Jensen argues that withdrawal is the only tenable solution to the crisis prompted by the country’s vote on Lisbon.
His call was followed yesterday by a Danish MEP who said the Irish people should be asked to vote on whether they want to remain part of the EU.
In an article, which has appeared in several European newspapers, Mr Elleman-Jensen says: “It would be sad to lose the merry people of the emerald island from the EU family. But it would be even sadder if, because of the Irish No, all those who wish to secure the same benefits from European integration that made it possible for the Irish to prosper, are left out in the cold.”
The central problem, he writes, is that enlargement cannot continue without the simplified decision-making procedures proposed in the treaty. He recalls that after the Danish rejection of the Maastricht Treaty in the summer of 1992, “the Danes were told that one way or another the country would have to leave the EU family if we did not find a way out.
“This time, however, it seems very difficult to see how all others could agree to create an EU-26 while isolating Ireland in an empty EU-27, though that would be a reasonable solution.
“That is why the Irish should show magnanimity and tell the others to go on without them.”