Pro-Treaty MEPs grill Irish foreign minister

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin was in the line of fire yesterday (6 October) as the European Parliament’s constitutional affairs committee (AFCO) pressed him to outline a concrete solution to the “Irish problem”.

Martin, however, resisted the pressure, claiming it would be “counterproductive” to move too quickly given that “the [defeated] Irish referendum only took place four months ago”. 

Instead, he said the Irish government advocated a “step-by-step” approach, building consensus with European partners. 

Lisbon or Nice? 

Recent reports in the Irish media have indicated that a second referendum before next year’s European elections is highly unlikely. This creates a potentially awkward political situation where the elections are fought on the basis of the Nice Treaty, meaning the election of 736 MEPs instead of the 751 set out in the Lisbon Treaty. 

Pro-Lisbon MEPs expressed dismay at this possibility, with a number of voices calling for Irish ratification before next June. German MEP and AFCO Chairman Jo Leinen said that “we are very keen to see the Lisbon Treaty ratified by all 27 member states before the next elections to the European Parliament”. He also noted that 24 member states had already ratified, while the remaining two, Sweden and the Czech Republic, were likely to follow soon. 

Yet despite being directly challenged by ALDE MEP Andrew Duff, Martin refused to speculate when or even if a second referendum would be held. 

Nevertheless, he did confirm that the Irish government would settle the Nice/Lisbon issue at next week’s EU summit. This would not only clarify the basis of next year’s election but also shed some light on the number of EU commissioners that should be expected of the next Commission. Indeed, under the Nice Treaty, a reduction in the their number to below 27 must be made next year, whereas the Lisbon Treaty envisages reducing the number of commissioners to 15 by 2014 (see EURACTIV 19/06/08). 

A number of anxious MEPs reiterated the “urgent need” for the Lisbon Treaty to help the EU tackle a growing number of global problems, such as the current financial crisis. Some likened Ireland’s ‘wait and see’ approach to “Waiting for Godot”, the famous play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters wait for someone named Godot who never arrives. But Romanian MEP Adrian Severin was quick to point out that “we cannot wait for Godot – Godot never comes”. 

But Martin stressed that a definitive proposal to address the Irish ‘no’ would be presented at the December summit.

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