Irish reject Lisbon treaty

The 18 countries that have ratified the Lisbon treaty:

Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Early responses

Elmar Brok
Leading constitutional expert from the conservative European People's Party (EPP-ED), and member of the convention that produced the first draft of the European constitution.

“The Irish no to the Treaty of Lisbon is highly regrettable. It is, however, still in the best interest of the EU member states and the citizens of the EU that the treaty enter into force. Ratification must therefore continue without delay. The treaty is the best we could achieve for European citizens and therefore should not be abandoned. It is now up to Irish PM Brian Cowen and the other European heads of state and government to show leadership in order to solve the crisis at the EU summit of 19-20 June.”

Martin Schulz
Leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament.

“We now need to move on. The ratification process should continue in other member states and the EU Summit should take its responsibilities. The fact that working people in Ireland opposed the treaty shows that we need an EU with a stronger social dimension - an EU that responds to people's everyday concerns about issues such as the rising cost of food and fuel. The heads of state and government need to state publicly what kind of European Union they want.  It is not good enough for them to have this debate behind closed doors in Brussels.  They need to come out openly and state what vision they have of the European Union.”

Graham Watson
Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament.

“the incoming French presidency should convene a special summit of EU leaders with only this one item [the treaty's rejection] on the agenda. All 27 member states must decide a course of action on the fate of the treaty and its proposed reforms and commit themselves to a concerted campaign to explain what the European Union is, why and how it works and why it deserves their support. If there is one clear lesson from Ireland it is that too few people know what the EU is about or how it is adapting to a changing global environment.”

Andrew Duff
Representative of the European Parliament to the 2007 Inter-Governmental Conference, the formal procedure for negotiations changes to the EU's founding treaties.
 
“It's a tragedy of great proportions for the Irish and for the EU. We do not know how to get out of this crisis. A protocol [such as a protocol on neutrality offered to the Irish after their rejection of the Treaty of Nice] is completely out of the question, because everyone else would have to start their ratification processes again from scratch. The antis were so poisonous that there is no single thing [Brian Cowen, Ireland's premier] can ask for. I'm also calling for the summit meeting to make up its own mind over the future of the treaty. I think we are not able to have a further period of reflection. I do want Gordon Brown and Poland to complete their ratification processes. I do think it will improve their moral authority.”

Marian Harkin
Independent member of the European Parliament, from Ireland.

“It was an extremely difficult campaign, much of the time was spent trying to counteract the misinformation being put out by the very well resourced ‘No' camp. Ireland became the battlefield of Europe and unfortunately this particular battle was lost.”

Monica Frassoni and Daniel Cohn-Bendit
Co-presidents of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament:

"The Irish ‘No' has once again demonstrated that national referenda are not an adequate instrument to decide European questions. Manipulated and false information on the nature of the treaty and the deliberately inaccessible treaty text made a constructive debate on the true issues impossible. We reiterate that we need a short Constitution focusing on selected points that are understandable and relevant to citizens. This new initiative should be put to European citizens in a Europe-wide referendum on the same day as the European elections. EU governments with their ambiguity on Europe are among the main culprits of the Irish No, as they managed to kill the soul of the process that started with the European convention in 2003."