June 2009 - 'suggested' date for Irish revote
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
French President Nicholas Sarkozy has proposed to the Irish prime minister that a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty be held on the same day as elections to the European Parliament next June.
Mr Sarkozy made the suggestion during a private discussion with Prime Minister, or Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, according to reports in the Irish Times, during a six-hour whistle-stop trip to Dublin to meet with government leaders and campaigners from both sides of the treaty battle.
At the same time, publicly, the French president denied that he had said Ireland must vote again.
"I never said that Ireland had to organise a new referendum. I said that at some stage or another the Irish had to be given the opportunity to give their opinion."
Last week, he told a private session with deputies from his UMP party in Paris that Ireland would have to hold a second referendum, according to an attendee of the meeting.
However, in Dublin the president said he accepted that there could be no resolution to the issue under his country's six-month presidency of the European Union, due to end in December.
"We don't want to push you into anything," said Mr Sarkozy at a joint press conference with Mr Cowen.
The Irish newspaper also reports that Mr Cowen underscored that his government was prepared only to offer a "preliminary report" to his fellow EU leaders when they meet at October's European Summit, and not a conclusive document detailing a way out of the impasse.
The French president's strategy for holding a second poll would be unveiled at the December summit in Brussels, and would involve a guarantee of a commissioner for every member state alongside non-legally-binding declarations - not protocols or opt-outs - targeting perceived Irish concerns around abortion and defence, among other issues.
Guarantees on abortion repeatedly figure among the possible responses of European leaders, despite representing the concerns of only two percent of those who voted No, according to the European Commission's own Eurobarometer poll on why people voted the way they did.
Mr Sarkozy also spent two hours meeting with 21 representatives from the various No-side campaign groups, including Libertas, Sinn Fein, the People's Movement and People Before Profit, each of which had three minutes to make their case. A handful of campaigners from the Yes side, including individuals from the Irish employers association, IBEC, were also in attendance.
The No campaigners, for their part, felt that the French president was not listening to their concerns.
"The most worrying thing about this meeting is the fact that clearly the message is not properly being heard, perhaps not even being heard at all. We have said no,'' said Declan Ganley the millionaire backer of Libertas, whose arguments against the treaty focussed on taxation and regulation as well as democracy issues.
"That this process should continue, this wish to force through this agenda. There is just something fundamentally wrong and broken with that," he added.
Patricia McKenna, of the left-wing People's Movement and a former Green MEP, said after meeting with Mr Sarkozy the whole trip was just a public relations exercise.
"He wants to be able to go back to his own people and say I've consulted all sections of Irish society in relation to the Lisbon Treaty, but he is not getting the message," Ms McKenna said.
"It was very disappointing when he said that it's only extreme situations that you avoid a vote, in other words that Ireland has to vote again.''
However, the head of Sinn Fein, the only mainstream party to oppose the treaty, found the short discussion he had with the French leader more constructive, saying that at least he met with the No campaigners, unlike the Irish government.
"I noted to the EU President that the reasons behind the No vote were not as complex as he and others have suggested," he said.
"The Irish electorate were deeply concerned with issues such as democracy, Ireland's loss of power within the EU, neutrality and militarisation, workers rights and public services. Indeed these same concerns are shared by many across the European Union."
As the Mr Sarkozy arrived, he was greeted by a small protest of a few hundred No campaigners waving "No Means No" placards.