Lisbon report in time for EU summit

RESEARCH on why Irish voters rejected the Lisbon treaty should be complete by September, in time for Taoiseach Brian Cowen to keep his pledge and report to the October EU summit.

Mr Cowen was in Paris yesterday for the inaugural meeting of the EU Mediterranean union.

The Taoiseach said he looked forward to co-operating as much as possible with French president Nicholas Sarkozy, who said last week that he wanted to know by December whether Ireland would ratify the treaty or not.