TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has promised EU leaders to launch a vigorous campaign to ratify the Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum, which is most likely to be held in the autumn.
He has also warned them not to trust recent opinion polls, which suggest a major swing in support for the treaty against a backdrop of a serious economic crisis unfolding in Ireland.
“We will be sparing no effort later this year in explaining the treaty to the public and endeavouring to persuade them that it is overwhelmingly in our interests,” said Mr Cowen in a speech to business leaders shortly before he attended the EU summit in Brussels.
He later repeated this message to EU leaders while also warning them the public mood could change rapidly in a campaign and particularly during such a difficult economic crisis.
Mr Cowen refused to give a definitive date for a second referendum, although he told journalists that the Government would probably get the clarifications it is seeking on the treaty at the next EU summit in June. He said it was still possible the texts could be produced before then. No date for a referendum could be given before clarifications are agreed, he added.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who attended a meeting of EU leaders in the EPP political party, criticised the slow pace of Government action and its failure to update the Opposition on the Lisbon talks. “I am concerned that the Government has not yet laid out any strategy to prepare for the second referendum,” he said.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin later dismissed Mr Kenny’s criticism, saying he had updated the Opposition at the Dáil’s European Affairs committee before the summit. He said the Opposition had told him they didn’t want a referendum before the European elections.
European Parliament president Hans-Gert Pöttering, who sat in on Mr Cowen’s briefing to EU leaders, said last night he thought a referendum would probably be held in October. “I am confident that, working together with Ireland, a solution acceptable to everyone can be found in June. . . Ireland needs the EU and the EU needs Ireland,” said Mr Pöttering, who added the parliament would meet the legitimate interests of Ireland.
Mr Cowen, who gave a speech at an event organised by software company Microsoft, stressed the importance of the EU to Ireland, particularly in the face of the current economic crisis. “For a relatively small nation such as Ireland, membership of the union and the euro greatly strengthen us at a time when immense forces are at play,” he said.
“Much attention has been focused on Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty last June. The core of the treaty is the modernisation of the union to take account of changes both within Europe and in Europe’s relationships with the wider world.
“Ireland needs a Europe that functions well and adapts to changing circumstances – that is why we need the Lisbon Treaty,” he told an audience of EU officials, Microsoft executives and journalists.