Barroso looks to Cowen in hunt for an 'escape' route
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams celebrates after the 'No' vote at the Leonard Cohen concert in Dublin last night.
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EUROPEAN leaders want to continue to ratify the Lisbon Treaty in the rest of the European Union, despite the 'No' vote in Ireland.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen will have to go to Brussels next week to explain to his European counterparts what he believes should happen now.
Although the EU Reform Treaty needs to be ratified by every country, the President of the European Commission insisted it is not dead and countries should press ahead with ratifying it.
Jose Manuel Barroso said Mr Cowen will have to present ideas on the way forward at a summit in Brussels next week so the 27 EU leaders can take "joint decisions" during the two-day meeting.
Ireland may end up being the only country of the 27 not to ratify the treaty.
Mr Barroso still insisted Lisbon was still alive.
Solve
"The 'No' vote in Ireland has not solved the problems which the Lisbon Treaty is designed to solve.
"The European Commission believes that the remaining ratifications should continue to take their course," he said.
"As far as I understood also from my conversation to Prime Minister Cowen, he also believes that the treaty is not dead. I believe the treaty is alive and we should now try to find a solution," he added.
Mr Barroso pointed out that 18 of the EU's 27 states had already endorsed it.
Ireland's rejection puts the future of the treaty in doubt, which was aimed at strengthening the EU's decision-making processes, but must be ratified by all member states.
Mr Barroso acknowledged the 'No' campaign had found powerful arguments and said he respected the result even though it represented the votes of a tiny fraction of the EU's population of nearly 500 million. German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that patient diplomacy might eventually turn the Irish 'No' to a future 'Yes'.
"We would have liked a different outcome, but as good Europeans we now have the task of simply taking the situation as it is and finding a way out, while at the same time respecting the vote of the Irish," she said.
France and Germany issued a joint statement regretting the Irish vote on the treaty but urging other EU states to press on with ratifying the agreement.
In Britain, one of eight EU countries yet to ratify the treaty through their parliaments, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the Irish outcome "needs to be respected and digested" -- but should not oblige other countries to postpone their own ratification plans.
Slovenia, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, said in a statement from Ljubljana that it deeply regretted the outcome of the Irish referendum and that next week's summit should chart a way forward.
- Fionnan Sheahan Political Editor
