"Given the economic crisis we are living in, given the fact that confidence is lacking and given the fact that governments are increasingly unpopular all over Europe, organising a referendum on the European Treaty would be a dangerous path to take. If I were the Irish Prime Minister, I wouldn't go for a referendum in the next few months," Juncker told an audience at an event entitled 'Reviving growth in the eurozone' organised by the European Policy Centre (EPC) on 17 September.
Making it clear that other EU governments shared similar doubts, the Luxembourg PM - who has held the post since 1995, making him the longest-serving participant at EU summits - said he was not optimistic about the propects for speedy adoption of the Treaty.
"I don't think the Treaty will be in place in June, when the next European election will take place. In order to make it enter into force in June 2009, the treaty would have to be ratified by all countries before the end of February. It's not realistic that this could be done," Juncker said. He said his "guess" was that the Treaty would enter into force around 1 January 2010.
