Personal tools
Skip to content. Skip to navigation

EUbusiness.com - business, legal and economic news and information from the European Union

Sections
You are here: Home Breaking news No more Lisbon rejections, EU's Barroso predicts
Document Actions

No more Lisbon rejections, EU's Barroso predicts

15 July 2008, 12:58 CET

(ROME) - Only Ireland among the EU's 27 member states will reject the controversial Lisbon Treaty, European Commission Presisdent Jose Manuel Barroso predicted in Rome on Tuesday.

Barroso was speaking on the day the Spanish parliament was set to complete its ratification of the treaty, which aims to streamline decision-making among the recently expanded bloc.

"There is only one 'no' to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, namely Ireland, and I do not expect other noes," he told the Italian parliament, quoted by the ANSA news agency.

"I hope that all countries will ratify the treaty -- then we must talk with our Irish friends about finding a solution and all move on," Barroso said.

Ireland was the only EU country to put the treaty to a public referendum, where 52 percent of voters rejected the text on June 12.

The result plunged Brussels into a new constitutional crisis, as the treaty must be ratified by all member states to come into effect. The treaty is before the parliaments of several other member states for ratification.

"Yesterday I spoke to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who said that his country will not impede the ratification," Barroso added. "I am convinced the Polish president will sign," he said.

The Polish president had previously suggested he would not sign the Lisbon Treaty in its current form and unless it was approved by Irish voters in a second referendum.

"We need time to see what can be done in Ireland, but we cannot delay too much as we have important deadlines before us, like the European elections in June 2009," he warned.

Barroso began a working visit to Italy on Monday, with a working lunch with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi scheduled for Tuesday.

The upper house of the Spanish parliament was expected to complete its ratification of the treaty on Tuesday.

If the Senate approves the text, it will then need to be signed by King Juan Carlos for the ratification process to be completed.

He could sign the treaty later this week, which would make Spain the 23rd EU country to ratify the document.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.




Subscribers
EUbusiness Week 421
EU green light for non-standard fruit and vegetables
NEWSLETTER SIGNUP
Week Ahead
CAP reform Health Check
WEEK AHEAD SIGNUP
Premium Partner
Credit Crunch and Late Payments - Intrum Justitia
PARTNER SIGNUP
* SUBSCRIPTIONS *
Cache EUB's Breaking News Portlet as HTML Cache EUB's Upcoming Events Portlet as HTML
Text links
Text links
Your link here