Brian stops NY traffic for Lisbon snarl-up

FIRST he held up Europe. Now he’s holding up New York. Or a section of it, at any rate.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s first overseas trip was to Brussels to explain to his fellow EU leaders how the Government had lost a referendum and held up the ratification of the Lisbon treaty.

Mr Cowen is in the midst of his first trip as Taoiseach to the US, but the Lisbon issue refuses to go away.

After finishing his first official engagement in the city — opening a photo exhibition at the Irish Arts Centre on West 51st Street — Mr Cowen stood on the pavement outside and, after posing for photos with guests, took questions from reporters.

The impromptu press conference lasted no longer than five minutes, but as the Secret Service blocked off the busy street to traffic for the duration, it created more than a bit of anger.

It was just after midnight Irish time yesterday, or 7pm local time on Tuesday night — the end of rush hour in New York.

So Mr Cowen spoke amid a cacophony of car horns from furious motorists sitting in the tailback which the Secret Service created by its action.

Not that the agents were perturbed. A Secret Service detail is assigned to every foreign leader when they visit the US, and the agents do things their way. The motorists just had to wait.

The same went for anyone hoping that Mr Cowen might tell French President Nicolas Sarkozy to keep his nose out of Irish business.

Mr Cowen was the model of diplomacy, refusing to take the bait and criticise Mr Sarkozy for saying Ireland would have to hold a second referendum on Lisbon.

“Well, I think obviously President Sarkozy on the attributed remarks to him has a view, and obviously we’ve to talk to him as president of the European Union about these matters. We need to look at all the options and see where we go from here. But obviously we’ve had a referendum in recent times, and we need to take account of that as well,” Mr Cowen said.

He added that he was looking forward to meeting Mr Sarkozy in Dublin next Monday when the French president pays a brief visit to discuss the fallout from the Irish rejection of Lisbon.

There was no question of the French forcing the Government into a particular course of action, he stressed.

The question now was to decide the way forward, but there was “nothing imminent” in terms of a decision.

“We’re at the start of the process here rather than at the end of the process,” Mr Cowen said.

Meanwhile, at home, Labour warned Mr Sarkozy to come to Dublin on Monday ready to “listen, not lecture”.

The party’s European Affairs spokesman Joe Costello accused the French leader of “jumping the gun” with his comments.

“President Sarkozy’s visit will be a sham unless he comes here ready to listen and not lecture.”

Fine Gael European Affairs spokeswoman Lucinda Creighton described the gulf between the Taoiseach’s position and that of EU president Sarkozy’s as “ridiculous”.

“They are both supposed to be singing from the same hymn sheet, but are saying different things. The breakdown in communication between the two is worrying.”