Snap British election may pose immediate threat to Lisbon treaty

THE number of candidates who won seats to the European Parliament and oppose the EU and the Lisbon treaty has increased.

However, the immediate threat to the treaty coming into force lies with the British government and whether it calls an election, a spokesperson for the European People’s Party said.

The leader of the Tories, David Cameron, has promised to hold a referendum on the treaty despite the British parliament having already ratified it and Queen Elizabeth signing it.

“Legally there is no way out of it for them because they have ratified it. But if they held a referendum before the Irish vote and it was rejected it would be very difficult to see what would happen next,” the spokesperson said.

Both the Czech and Polish presidents have refused to sign their parliament’s ratification until after the Irish vote, expected to be in early October.

But they could also refuse to sign if the British voted against it. This would also put the Irish Government in a difficult position as to whether to go ahead with its vote or not.

The stated objective of the far right British National Party that won two seats and of the United Kingdom Independence Party that won 13 seats – the same number as the Labour party – in the elections is to take Britain out of the EU.

Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa, who retained his seat in Dublin, said the overall vote in the elections throughout the EU could not be seen as a vote against the Lisbon treaty.

“We cannot draw any conclusions because the results are different from different member states, with some pro-EU parties winning the vast majority of seats and a surge in euro sceptic candidates in some countries matched by a decline of euro sceptics in others,” he said.

The Government will this week be finalising the wording of the guarantees they want to put to the Irish people in the referendum re run. It should be adopted by EU leaders at their next summit in two weeks’ time.