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No 10 admits EU treaty is finished
Gordon Brown is privately ready to sacrifice the Lisbon treaty rather than allow the Irish no vote to create a two-tier Europe. Despite the Irish referendum, France, Germany and senior Brussels officials have insisted there should be no delay in implementing the European Union blueprint. But No 10 sources say the prime minister would rather see the entire constitutional treaty collapse than allow individual member states to be left trailing in a two-speed Europe.The collapse of the Lisbon treaty would take the heat off Brown as he faces down renewed calls for Britain to have its own referendum. If Europe presses ahead without Ireland, it would set a precedent for a two-speed club, with Britain likely to be stuck in the second tier. A Downing Street source said: The legal position on this is very clear: the treaty cannot come into force until all 27 countries have ratified it. One senior government official said anyone who thought the Irish vote could be ignored was living in cloud-cuckoo-land. The leaders of the EUs 27 members states will meet this week in Brussels, but yesterday the Irish government ruled out forcing through a second referendum. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said European leaders had to heed the no vote or risk looking remote, out of touch and more undemocratic than ever. However, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president who will take over the rotating EU presidency next month, dismissed the Irish vote as a hiccup that should not become a political crisis. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germanys foreign minister, went further, stating that the Lisbon treaty provisions, which include the creation of a permanent EU president and the widespread abolition of national vetoes, could be implemented without Ireland. Ireland for a period of time could leave the way free for the integration of the other 26 member states, he said. In public, British ministers are insisting that a solution to the impasse can still be found. Jim Murphy, the Europe minister, yesterday told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Only those who previously wished to dance on the grave of this treaty, even before the Irish referendum, are declaring it dead. In private, the mood among senior Whitehall officials is more pessimistic. No one wants to come out publicly now and say the treaty is dead, said one. But by the end of the week, after the Brussels summit, that could well be the case. Rest at link Posted by: ed 2008-06-15 |
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