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After the Irish rejection

The heads of government of the European Union (EU) member states who are meeting this week to grapple with the stunning implications of Ireland’s overwhelming ‘no’ to the draft Lisbon Treaty face a major challenge in getting the process back on track. The grand sweep and scope of the proposals of the Lisbon treaty were intended to effect a major streamlining of the EU’s institutions, but more importantly, set in motion a process of closer political integration. With the Irish referendum verdict dealing a deadly blow to these hopes, the EU leaders will have to re-examine nearly every aspect of the economic and political integration that the EU had been striving for. The Lisbon accord was seen as a step towards a more structured integration of Europe, allowing for some crucial democratic reforms in the EU framework. One proposal in the draft treaty was to have a semi-permanent president for the union and a foreign minister, while also giving more powers to national parliaments on the EU stage. With senior politicians from member countries now scrambling to salvage the treaty, it is evident that the leading European governments are optimistic that the process can be revived. The President of the European Commission has appealed to the remaining nine states to continue with the process of ratification of the accord in accordance with their domestic procedures. But given that member countries are likely to take their own time to act, the prospect of the accord coming into force on January 1, 2009, is remote.

The EU’s attempts to establish common political institutions to buttress its economic integration have met with little success these last seven years. One major reason for this is the lack of popular enthusiasm for this project even in leading pro-European states such as France and the Netherlands. What is also highlighted in these developments, notably the Irish verdict, is the disconnect between European leaders and ordinary citizens. The reality of an acute democratic deficit is borne out even in the elections to the European Parliament in which voter participation has been markedly low. An enlarged EU can ill afford to ignore these reality checks on its performance.

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