EU treaty referendum to be held next year

THE new EU Treaty will be put to the Irish people in a referendum next year, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said following its agreement at the weekend.

The deal was finally done in the early hours of Saturday following a tense and occasionally ill-tempered summit in Brussels.

If agreed by every member state, it will give the union a full-time president, a foreign minister, rotating commissioners, more power to eurozone finance ministers and more decisions made jointly by the Council of Ministers representing member states of the European Parliament from 2009.