The perils of accommodating Ireland.
June 27, 2008 by Ken
Filed under The Constitution of the EU
The perils of accommodating Ireland.
Interesting confirmation of the legal situation in the face of changes to the Lisbon treaty to accommodate Ireland, and pave the way for a second referendum.
Austria’s chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, has said that if any changes are made to the Lisbon Treaty following its rejection by Irish voters earlier this month, then it should be put to a referendum in his country.
“We think any future changes to the treaty that affect Austrian interests must be decided in Austria by a referendum,”
“There is also in Austria widespread scepticism about the EU at the moment. After the vast majority of Austrians voted in favour of EU membership in 1994, today we see a mood of uncertainty and sometimes also rejection.”
The pro- EU camp are keen to ignore the legal realities of the suggested accommodations to Ireland in that those would necessarily require a change to the treaty which would mean that it would have to be ratified again and not just in Ireland.
