Seamus Burns considers whether or not the Irish “no vote” means the Lisbon Treaty is confirmed dead
The rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, (LT) by the voters of the Republic of Ireland on 12 June 2008 can be interpreted as a total and final repudiation of LT with the juggernaut of ever-increasing EU integration being derailed, or alternatively viewed as merely an inconvenient red stop signal halting only temporarily the EU train on its relentless one-way journey to the federal EU superstate called Europe.
Background
The Lisbon Treaty was signed by the governments of the 27 member states of the EU in December 2007. LT had been created and designed to replace the draft European Constitution, which itself had been rejected by the voters of France and Holland in referendums held in both countries in 2005. Each of the 27 member states had to then subsequently ratify the LT before it came into force. Moreover, under EU rules all 27 member states had to ratify LT before it became effective, thus in essence conferring a veto to all member states. As at 23/6/2008, 18 of the
