Via Patrick Vessey, this from Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen: Taoiseach Brian Cowen yesterday directly linked failure to pass the Lisbon Treaty referendum to the economic downturn. He said the Government did not explain to people that rejection of the treaty could make the economic situation even worse. Mr Cowen said the economy and Lisbon cannot be separated when the country looks at its place in Eu...

So a harsh, tax-raising budget from the deeply unpopular Irish government. I wonder how this will impact on the planned autumn referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The consensus view in Dublin and Brussels is that the economic crisis will reverse last summer's "No" vote. I am doubtful. The logic goes that Ireland would have been much worse off outside the euro and the EU and so people will delive...

It seems unfair to single anyone out, but I'm going to award the gong to Brian Cowen, Taoiseach of Ireland. On Monday Cowen directly linked failure to pass the Lisbon Treaty referendum to the economic downturn: He said the Government did not explain to people that rejection of the treaty could make the economic situation even worse. Mr Cowen said the economy and Lisbon cannot be separated whe...

Conservatives and Unionists candidate Jim Nicholson MEP has strongly welcomed the pledge by Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague that a future Conservative Government will give the British people a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, if the ratification process is ongoing.

The government has now formally ratified the EU Constitution Lisbon Treaty. It did so despite having promised us a referendum, and despite the Irish "no" vote. Shame on our government. With luck this episode will serve to further undermine the...

The people of Ireland have been bullied, cheated and bribed into voting for the EU Constitution aka the Lisbon Treaty. Despite yesterday’s referendum being on exactly the same Treaty already rejected this year in Ireland, the Irish have been conned into believing the “guarantees” they have been given that the Treaty will be changed are legally

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said that the Conservatives may hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, even if the Treaty has been ratified before the party can form a Government. He assured that if the Treaty is unratified before the Conservatives take office then, “of course, we would hold a referendum.

Polls have opened in Ireland in their referendum on adoption of the re-named EU Constitution.Ireland is the only country to be getting a vote on the Lisbon treaty - the requirements of their Constitution not allowing the Irish government to deny the people a say on further transfers of power to EU institutions, as has happened in every other EU country.Opinion surveys have shown the 'Yes' and 'No'...

Ireland has stood firm against the Lisbon Treaty, against the expectations of the EU. The battle is on to somehow obtain a 'solution' to the Irish problem, either a second referendum with a different result (unlikely), or an all-Party Parliamentary ratification (unlikely) or some kind of legal stitch-up (very possible). But that assumes that all the other 26 countries will ratify the Treaty.German...

A single currency, a single market, but 27 economic policies. A singular mess. What, if anything, did the Constitutional Treaty do to sort it out? We look at the clause on excessive government deficits in the context of economic and monetary union (EMU). *** In the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe the provisions on economic policy were located in Part III ‘The policies and funct...