For all the talk of the need to connect with Europe’s citizens, few things get EU officials into a sweat like seeing their very vision put on the line in a referendum, like the one Ireland will hold on Thursday.
In past popular votes on EU treaties, the European public has proved difficult to predict under pressure from party politics or lobbies, or as people seek to register protests against their own government.
Often the results have highlighted the gulf between the great vision of Europe’s political elites and the needs of its people.
The European Commission — home to the “unelected Eurocrats” derided in the press — is warning that there is no plan B should the Lisbon treaty be rejected.
And a “no” vote — which is a distinct possibility according to opinion polls — could see the EU once again in unchartered waters.
Yet such setbacks have been overcome in the past.
Voters in Ireland and Denmark have rejected EU treaties, but reversed their decision when the question was put to them a second time.
In June 2001, concerns about defense were also partly behind the decision by Irish people to vote “no” to the Nice treaty, which contained key institutional reforms needed for the bloc to enlarge, as it did by 10 members in 2004.
There were also fears that enlargement might cost Ireland — the only of the 27 nations attempting to ratify the Lisbon treaty by referendum — the generous EU subsidies that helped revive its economy.
After European leaders formally recognized Ireland’s long-standing military neutrality — and a campaign by major parties, businesses, unions and farm groups — Nice passed muster in October 2002.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS