EU envoys are discussing legal guarantees being sought by Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty that would allow the Government to call a second referendum on the issue in September or October.
The Government is “quietly confident” it will get the guarantees it is seeking and possibly announce the date of a second referendum later this week. However, it still faces stiff opposition from some states to its request to have a legally binding protocol attached to the EU treaties that its EU partners would have to ratify.
“The impetus from other member states is to be helpful, creative and try to resolve these issues … We are quietly confident and hopeful,” said Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin after EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg yesterday.
He was speaking shortly after the Government sent the first draft outlining the legal guarantees that it wants its EU partners to sign up to at an EU summit on Thursday. It focuses on three specific areas where the Government is seeking legally binding guarantees on: taxation; neutrality and ethical/social issues such as the right to life, family and education. It also addresses workers’ rights and social policy but in these sensitive areas the Government will get a declaration, not a legal guarantee.
On the issue of military neutrality the legal guarantee says that nothing in the Lisbon Treaty provides for “the creation of an EU army or for conscription to any military formation”. It also clarifies that the Government can decide whether to come to the aid of an EU state attacked by terrorists and how much it spends on military equipment – all issues that were raised by No campaigners during the first treaty referendum.
The guarantees stipulate that neither the treaty nor the charter of fundamental rights, which is made legally binding by Lisbon, affects in any way the scope or applicability of the Irish Constitution in relation to the right to life, family and education. It also makes clear that Lisbon does not affect in any way EU competence in the field of taxation.
Mr Martin said member states may seek some changes to the draft following the meeting today but he insisted the “underlying mood” of negotiations was constructive.
EU diplomats, however, said there was still resistance to Irish demands to have the legally binding guarantees ratified by all EU states’ parliaments to enable the guarantees to become primary law by enshrining them in the EU treaties. “The legal form is one of those [issues] which are still being discussed,” said Czech Europe minister Stefan Fule. “What was mentioned by many ministers today is that while we should approach this issue with creativity ... that should not mean we create problems in other member states.”
Britain, Poland and the Netherlands are all concerned that ratifying an Irish protocol through their parliaments will reopen the debate on the treaty. They are pushing for EU heads of state to issue a legally binding decision at the summit setting out the legal guarantees rather than agree to ratify a new protocol.
But Mr Martin said the Government wants its EU partners to commit to ratify a protocol on the legal guarantees at the same time that Croatia joins the EU in 2011.
He noted that French president Nicolas Sarkozy supported this position when he chaired last December’s EU summit.
If agreed, the guarantees could be approved by EU leaders at a two-day summit starting on Thursday. The leaders will also back Jose Manuel Barroso for a new term as president of the executive European Commission at the summit, discuss financial regulatory reforms, step up the fight against unemployment and plot strategy for UN climate talks.
Additional reporting: Reuters