Lisbon under scrutiny as Germany demands changes

LEGAL experts are examining the Lisbon Treaty to see if it is possible to make the changes Germany wants without holding a referendum.

Some believe it is possible to tweek the treaty to allow a permanent crisis fund to be established to bail out eurozone countries that run into problems. But they are less convinced that depriving countries of their vote to punish them for not maintaining strict control of their economies is possible without bigger changes.

Germany is insisting it needs treaty change to replace the temporary joint EU-IMF €750 billion bailout fund when it expires in 2013.