Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

The No Campaign failed to make the Abortion issue a major reason to vote no. But they certainly convinced the rest of Europe again. And yet again we have another person rather then reading the Eu-barometer results but let there own bias dictate their views. Sylvie Goulard, the president of the French section of [...]

If Ireland took the most democratic route to ratification, arguably Poland did the opposite. The parliament elected by the people voted to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. But ratification could not procede because a single person was against it - their President. The President says he won’t sign because the Irish voted No. That cannot be [...]

So the Polish President says he will not sign.
Polish president Lech Kaczynski has said he will not sign the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, saying it was pointless after Irish voters rejected it in a referendum last month.
“For the moment, the question of the treaty is pointless,” Mr Kaczynski was quoted as saying in the online version [...]

Irish Economic Growth contraction. From Irish Times
Economic growth in the Republic shrank by 1.5 per cent between January and March this year, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office this morning.
Growth rates recorded for the Republic during the first quarter 2008 showed that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 1.5 per cent, [...]

This caused a Storm in Sweden recently.
Swedish media have erroneously reported that the EU plans to register and bill all bloggers, setting off a firestorm of reaction in the country.
And there is a lesson to all of us in the responsibility of the media there. But this part caught my eye.
Speaking to the EUobserver, Ms [...]

I am not sure if this is Austria playing hard ball with Brussels but Austrian chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer has said that if the Treaty text is changed for Ireland then Austria would have a referendum as well.
Also
Hannes Swoboda, vice-president of the Socialists in the EU assembly, told Der Standard newspaper: “It is not possible [...]

Missed this earlier today but didn’t spot it picked up here. Jamie Smyth got his hands on the confidential part of the Eurobarometer survey into the Lisbon result. The findings are interesting - also interesting they weren’t released. I would have guessed at who leaked were it not coming from Brussels correspondent.
LISBON: party supporters’ votes
[...]

We have been playing it for a while, though we are repeatedly at pains to point out that there was no single reason why this Treaty failed. Voters voted for different reasons. Anyway, over on his blog Jon Worth gives his two cents on who gets to shoulder the blame in Euro-ville.
The candidates? Charlie McCreevy, [...]

By a landslide in the Spanish Parliament, Lisbon was ratified today in Spain.
322-6 was the final vote with 2 abstentions.

You know the image.  There’s one house in the estate that’s always trouble.  Every time they walk in the door, the neighbours are looking through the curtains wondering what trouble will be coming this time.

Photo owned by art makes me smile (cc)
After their attempt last week to paint the lisbon no vote as an anti-abortion vote. The French have changed tacit. This time they are taking the Indymedia line
France’s Europe minister, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, has said that Europe has enemies in Washington, suggesting that neo-conservatives played a significant [...]

The Financial Times’ Brussels blog has a very interesting story about the manouvering taking place on European Commission numbers from next year. As we found out, Nice will govern the makeup of the Commission from January next year - rather than Lisbon.
This means there has to be less Commissioners than there are member states, prompting [...]

The EU has started a new Lobbyist database to register all lobbiests in the EU.
“Lobbying is a necessary and growing business, and regulation is inescapable,” Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas said.
“I am happy that the profession agrees, and has signalled its readiness to protect its own reputation and help us preserve the legitimacy of our interaction,” [...]

The EU Observer reports
Poland is emerging as another potential problem for Lisbon Treaty ratification, with the office of the president - who has yet to sign off on the document - beginning to publicly argue that the EU pact is dead following the Irish No.
I think Sarkozy is going to be visiting Poland soon. [...]

[Edit: To say hello and welcome stumblers. Take a look around and tell us what you think.]
The prevailing mantra of Irish and European politicians, still reeling at the Lisbon ‘No’ vote in Ireland, is that we as a small nation cannot hold up the EU. Apparently, if 26 nations have said ‘Yes’ the breaks should [...]

Another excellent contribution to Open Democracy on the fallout from Lisbon yields a clear sighted analysis of just why so many people think the Lisbon campaign and fallout stinks;
But the Irish voters are not the only surrealists in the latest European psychodrama. A day before the vote, European political leaders had passionately argued that success [...]