United States of Europe? – Lisbon Treaty (one year later)

European Union leaders expressed delight and relief on Saturday after Irish campaigners for the EU’s Lisbon treaty rode to an emphatic victory in a landmark referendum.

Final results showed that the pro-Lisbon forces had triumphed by a margin of 67.1 to 32.9 per cent, representing a swing of more than 20 per cent from the outcome registered in June 2008, when the Irish electorate rejected the treaty by 53.4 to 46.6 per cent.

Brian Cowen, Ireland’s prime minister, welcomed the results. ”Today the Irish people have spoken with a clear and resounding voice. It is a good day for Ireland and it is a good day for Europe.”

The result was a huge fillip for the EU, which has spent most of the past 10 years in an often morale-draining, accident-prone effort to redesign its institutions to take account of its enlargement into a bloc of 27 countries.

The long uncertainty over the EU’s future has damaged its standing with millions of European citizens and caused China, Russia and the US to question whether Europe is too disunited to project its influence effectively on the world stage.

But Europe’s leaders were in no mood to highlight such concerns once the scale of the pro-Lisbon forces’ victory in Ireland became clear. Carl Bildt, foreign minister of Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said it was only a matter of time “before we can finally push the button for the better European co-operation that the Lisbon treaty can give us. Not least, it will give us the possibility of a stronger European voice in the world.”

José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president said the Irish result demonstrated “the very positive response that Europe is bringing to the economic and financial crisis”.

The outcome greatly improves the chances that the institutional reforms set out in the Lisbon treaty will come into effect next year. The last pocket of resistance lies in Prague Castle, the official residence of Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, who abhors the treaty and has so far refused to sign it.

Pro-Lisbon politicians in other EU countries said they anticipated that Mr Klaus would sooner or later withdraw his opposition.

Under the charter, the 27-nation EU would receive its first full-time president, strengthen the authority of its head of foreign policy and reduce the number of areas in which one national government can veto initiatives agreed by others.

It would also extend the influence of the European parliament to virtually all types of EU legislation, notably agriculture and trade, whilst bolstering the right of national parliaments to scrutinise draft European laws.

The Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation (Ibec), which campaigned for a Yes result, said on Saturday : “The vote is an important step on the road to economic recovery and the restoration of Ireland’s international reputation.”

Voters who were interviewed by the Financial Times on Friday, and who had switched from No to Yes in the two referendums, said they were influenced by the near-collapse of Ireland’s financial system over the past year and the ensuing economic slump. Ireland’s banking system has survived thanks almost entirely to emergency funds provided by the European Central Bank.

Some voters also said they had been reassured by guarantees of national sovereignty that Ireland negotiated with its 26 EU partners after the first referendum, and in particular by the binding commitment that Ireland would always have a seat on the European Commission.

“This vote does credit to all those political forces in Ireland which have had to combat, over many months, the lies and distortions about the European project peddled by nationalists and europhobes – many of them British,” said Andrew Duff, a liberal UK member of the European parliament.