Ah, heck
The Irish have rejected the Lisbon treaty. Bit of a bugger. The EU badly needs reforming, it's in a bit of a bureaucratic mess at the moment. To be reformed, it needs the treaty, which needs to be ratified by all 27 member nations, and now it's been (from what I can tell, somewhat unexpectedly) spoiled right at the off.
Ah well. I guess they will have to come up with another treaty, and make it one everyone can understand so it's more difficult to create misinformation campaigns claiming that there's a massive (rather than limited and partial) transfer of sovereignty going on in signing up to the EU project.
Or the could allow the Irish to opt-out. Handy things, EU opt-outs. The UK has a parcel of them already, the biggest of course being having opted out of the Euro.
Seriously, though, if you're not gonna play ball, why volunteer to join the team? It's not like the Irish have done badly by the EU. They wouldn't have become the "Celtic tiger" without their membership. With a cynical eye one might say they've gotten what they needed out of it, and now it might come round their turn to help out other emerging EU nations, they're not so interested.
Ah well. I guess they will have to come up with another treaty, and make it one everyone can understand so it's more difficult to create misinformation campaigns claiming that there's a massive (rather than limited and partial) transfer of sovereignty going on in signing up to the EU project.
Or the could allow the Irish to opt-out. Handy things, EU opt-outs. The UK has a parcel of them already, the biggest of course being having opted out of the Euro.
Seriously, though, if you're not gonna play ball, why volunteer to join the team? It's not like the Irish have done badly by the EU. They wouldn't have become the "Celtic tiger" without their membership. With a cynical eye one might say they've gotten what they needed out of it, and now it might come round their turn to help out other emerging EU nations, they're not so interested.