EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT:EU LEADERS should take "all appropriate steps" to ensure the Lisbon Treaty comes into force before June of next year, European Parliament president Hans-Gert Pöttering said yesterday, warning that any further enlargement of the EU is "barely conceivable" without the treaty.
Speaking at the opening of the parliament's sitting in Strasbourg, Mr Pöttering said Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in last week's referendum confronts the EU with one of the most difficult challenges in its history.
He called on leaders taking part in the EU summit in Brussels later this week to take "all appropriate steps to make the [treaty] a reality" despite the Irish vote.
"It remains our goal to see the Lisbon Treaty enter into force before the elections of June 2009 to the European Parliament," he told MEPs. "The Lisbon Treaty is the answer to criticisms which citizens have levelled at the deficits of the European Union," Mr Pöttering said.
"This treaty brings the European Union closer to its citizens. We must make it abundantly clear that the adoption of the reform treaty is an absolute necessity, to enable the European Union to defend its values and interests in the 21st century.
"Without the reforms which are made possible by the Lisbon Treaty, the accession of further countries to the European Union is hardly conceivable."
The ratification process, Mr Pöttering told the assembly, must continue without reservation.
"We call upon the Irish Government, for its part, to submit proposals as to how we can jointly progress beyond this difficult phase in European politics," he said.
"The European Parliament will devote all its energies and display maximum commitment to overcoming these challenges. We expect the same of the European Commission and of the governments of all European Union member-states.
"We equally expect the European Parliament to be comprehensively involved in the work concerned."