Barroso hails result as 'great day for Ireland'
The guarantee that we would keep our European Commissioner was a significant factor in the Irish people voting in favour of the Lisbon treaty, according to the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who described the endorsement as a great day for Europe and for Ireland.
Mr Barroso, who visited Limerick during the campaign where he announced significant EU funding to assist Dell workers, said he was extremely happy about what he called a "resounding result".
"I want to congratulate the Irish people on reaching their overwhelming decision," he said. Mr Barroso said he believed the vote was a sign of confidence from the Irish people in the European Union, and a sign of their desire to be wholehearted members at the heart of the EU.
"It is a sign that Ireland recognises the role that Europe has played in responding to the economic crisis. Debate has been intense. Many people have been involved . . . I was genuinely impressed, not just by the campaigns run by the political parties but -- and I want to underline this -- by the campaigns by civil society organisations. This shows that when we engage at the European level and that when we explain Europe we can have real support for our European project."
Elsewhere, 17 Eurosceptic Czech politicians plan to launch what may prove -- in the light of Ireland's Yes vote -- to be one of the treaty's final hurdles.
The group, mainly from the Civic Democratic Party, have filed a challenge in the Czech constitutional court, complaining that the document violates national sovereignty by handing over too much power to Brussels.
Nobody thinks their complaint stands much chance of being upheld, especially given that a previous, similar suit failed.
But they hope it might at least delay the final Czech go-ahead for the treaty -- which only awaits the president's signature -- in the Czech Republic until next summer, by which time their friends in Britain's Conservative Party may have won power.
David Cameron has said that if the treaty is not yet fully ratified elsewhere -- the Czech Republic is now the last country where it remains in question -- he will order a referendum in Britain, a commitment he reiterated in a recent letter to the Czech president Vaclav Klaus, who himself opposes the treaty.
"We have launched this action because we really believe that the Lisbon treaty is just a cosmetically reworked version of the rejected European constitution," said Mr Jaroslav Kubera, a member of the Eurosceptic group.
- JEROME REILLY and DAniel Mcconnell
Originally published in
