EU ambassadors approve Lisbon guarantees for Ireland

EU AMBASSADORS have given the wording of the Irish guarantees the thumbs up at a special meeting in Brussels on a day when it emerged that British diplomats have asked for some changes to the text.

The exact legal format of the guarantees is still unresolved and the heads of the member states are likely to make this decision at their summit on Thursday and Friday.

An Irish spokesperson said there was a good amount of agreement on the text, adding the British suggestions will continue to be discussed today.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen spoke to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday night about the guarantees, a government spokesperson said.

Some member states described the British changes as simply drafting suggestions but others said they went further.

They relate specifically to the section on security and defence and Ireland’s neutrality.

“All the assurances in fact simply clarify the Lisbon treaty and apply to all member states but some feel that the balance between what is Irish-specific and what applies equally to all member states needs to be clarified further,” said one diplomat.

Others thought the proposed tweaking of the text might be a tactical move by the British, who like the Dutch and Poles, do not want the guarantees to become protocols attached to the next EU treaty.

Irish diplomats said there was broad agreement the guarantees will take the form of a decision by the member states of the EU, which would mean it is a legally binding international agreement.

The decision will be lodged with the UN as an international treaty, the spokesperson said, giving it added weight. Anybody disagreeing with it would have to appeal to the international courts.

But the decision on whether it would be attached to a treaty at a later date was still undecided. “This is now the main issue,” a source from another member state said.

As a protocol added to a treaty it would be binding in European Law and could not be overridden by a ruling of the European Courts.

If the summit agrees to it becoming a protocol it would have to be debated by each parliament, and the politicians are wary of doing anything that might open up the Lisbon treaty to another vote.

Treaty expert Peadar O Broin of the Irish Institute of European Affairs said the format so far is following the Danish model when they opted out of defence and justice in 1992. Only later in 1997 did it become a protocol attached to the Amsterdam treaty.

Even without treaty status, it would be a strong document as it would have the political support of all member states and would be binding in international law, he added.