French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ambition to find a quick fix to the crisis sparked by Ireland’s veto of the EU’s Lisbon treaty is facing stiff resistance by the Polish and Czech presidents.
Straight off the bat at the July 1 start of France’s six-month presidency of the EU, both leaders of the two 2004 EU entrants made it clear the Irish “no” was not the only problem Paris was facing to get the Lisbon treaty, a crucial reform package for the 27-member bloc, back on track.
Poland’s conservative President Lech Kaczynski has said he won’t give the treaty his seal of approval as long as Ireland doesn’t change its mind. Populist eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus is lobbying for Prague’s parliament to scupper ratification.
Their positions cast doubt on the chances the treaty, rejected by Irish voters in a June 12 referendum, may gain the unanimous approval of the EU’s 27 member states which it must have to take effect.
“If Ireland makes another decision — but not under pressure, and without changing its constitution — in the same way as the first, then Poland will not place a block on the treaty,” Kaczynski said in an interview on Wednesday.
The Polish leader also termed the treaty — meant to streamline decision-making in a bloc which has grown from 15 to 27 members since 2004 — as “pointless.”
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