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Date Posted: 07:20:01 07/05/08 Sat GMT
Author: Lynn
Subject: Irish voters' rejection staggers EU (Tampa Tribune/LA Times)

vVoters' Rejection Staggers EU

Los Angeles Times

Published: June 14, 2008

DUBLIN, Ireland - European leaders were scrambling Friday to find a new path to a more powerful and manageable European Union after Irish voters rejected a treaty meant to bolster the alliance's government.

The rejection threw into doubt nearly a decade of efforts to overcome widespread public skepticism and develop a European constitution. The reforms would create a powerful European presidency and diplomatic corps, and improve cooperation on law enforcement and defense.

"The problem is, it's not a very exciting treaty," Gail McElroy, a lecturer in political science at Trinity College in Dublin said before Thursday's vote. "Institutional efficiency is very hard to get people excited about."

Because the measure must be ratified by all 27 member states of the alliance, Ireland's rejection struck a potentially fatal blow. European leaders face the prospect of resubmitting the treaty to hostile Irish voters or renegotiating it yet again.

"It is clear that the Lisbon Treaty will not take effect on Jan. 1, 2009," Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's longest-serving leader, said after Irish voters in a referendum on the treaty rejected it by a margin of 53 percent to 46 percent.

The rejection appears to underscore the lingering unpopularity among many ordinary voters toward greater integration among the continent's nations fifty years after the idea of a united Europe was put forward in the aftermath of World War II.

Alliance leaders were set to meet next week, and most vowed to proceed with winning ratification of the treaty. In the end, however, the Irish vote left European governance in the same place it has been since the EU's birth: in paralysis and limbo.

The European Union was formed in 1993 as a loose alliance of countries seeking to expand economic cooperation into the spheres of security, justice, human rights and border control. Since then, it has grown in size, complexity and its ability to compete with world powers.

Information from The New York Times was used in this report.

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