GERMANY:GERMAN FOREIGN minister Frank Walter Steinmeier has suggested Ireland take a "break" from the EU after its rejection of the Lisbon Treaty to allow other member states continue with integration.
Mr Steinmeier suggested "Ireland could exit the integration process for a time to clear the way for the Lisbon Treaty to come into force in 26 countries".
The apparent call for a two-speed Europe by Mr Steinmeier, a leading Social Democrat (SPD), has caused irritation among his Christian Democrat (CDU) grand coalition partners. They made clear yesterday that Mr Steinmeier was speaking for himself and not the government.
"The foreign minister spoke as foreign minister, the chancellor made her position very clear on Friday, to wait and see what the Irish Government has to say," said a spokesman.
A foreign ministry spokesman was unable to cast any further light on Mr Steinmeier's suggestion yesterday, adding only that the "minister has said what he's said".
Mr Steinmeier, who returned from China late last night, may have more to say on the matter at this morning's EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg.
His remark came amid signals yesterday that he is preparing to challenge chancellor Merkel as the SPD candidate in the next year's scheduled general election.
After two years in chancellor Merkel's foreign policy shadow, political observers in Berlin speculated that Mr Steinmeier's Irish remark was an attempt to win back some of the EU limelight.
"His remark is an affront to the Irish and disastrous for the EU's reputation - that anyone who makes use of their vote and spoils the game can be sent off the pitch," said Jan Techau of the German Foreign Policy Association (DGAP). "It also doesn't solve the real legitimacy problem that the EU faces."
Nevertheless, a growing number of voices across the German political spectrum view the Irish vote as the opening shot in a new battle for a two-speed Europe.
This idea would allow a core group of countries led by France and Germany to proceed with deeper political, military and economic co-operation, with a "privileged partnership" for those who are not interested in closer co- operation.
The CDU's Wolfgang Schäuble, now federal interior minister, first mooted the idea of a two-speed Europe in a 1994 paper.
But he made only an oblique reference to his idea at the weekend, calling instead for a new initiative to bring the EU closer to European citizens.
"People don't like individual aspects of politics in Brussels, for instance that it isn't sufficiently transparent," he told Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "I would be in favour of a European election one day to elect the president of the European Council."
Like chancellor Merkel, Mr Schäuble favours pushing ahead with Lisbon in the countries that have yet to ratify before the EU decides its next step.
"I'm very sure that we have a clear majority in Europe for a continuation of European union," he said, criticising the idea of "letting a few million Irish make decisions for 495 million Europeans".
"To say people are against European union is nonsense," he said.
Others were more outspoken: the French-German Green politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit said Irish No voters "don't give a shit" about the EU and feared that the Lisbon Treaty would "open the door to gay marriage and abortion".
He told Der Spiegel that the treaty could still be salvaged and that Irish voters should be asked again "if they really want to stand to one side and block everything".
"I'm sick of phantom debates, I want clear decisions about what's to become of Europe," said Mr Cohn-Bendit.
"I want to see a future before me."