Cowen: Aspects of Lisbon must be put to referendum

THE Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, has said there are aspects of the Lisbon treaty as it stands presently that would have to be ratified by referendum.

The Taoiseach, speaking in Brussels where he is attending an emergency meeting regarding the situation in Georgia, was responding to suggestions that the Oireachtas could approve the treaty rather than put it to a second referendum.

While he did not entirely rule out a suggestion from a number of quarters that the Oireachtas would approve the treaty rather than put it to a second referendum he did point out “there are aspects of the document that require a referendum”.

He added that the legal advice to the Government had been that a referendum was required and so they put the “usual uniform general question to the people” and it was rejected. “Where we go from here is a matter for decision,” he added.

Some senior politicians believe that the Charter of Fundamental Rights is the only part of the treaty that changes the Irish Constitution and as such needs to be approved by a referendum.

The treaty has been ratified by 24 countries with two more saying they will have passed it before the end of the year. Ireland is the only EU member to reject it so far.

Mr Cowen also revealed that the survey into why the majority of the voting public rejected the treaty was nearing completion and that the Government would discuss with the opposition how to analyse the results of the survey shortly.

Meanwhile, multimillionaire businessman Declan Ganley meets a number of mainly British conservative MEPs in the European Parliament today where he is expected to outline his ideas to form a pan-EU political group to field candidates in next year’s European Parliament elections.