Irish Rebuff Sends Europe Reeling
Officials in Brussels and other European capitals appeared shell-shocked as they absorbed the news they had dreaded to hear on Friday the 13th: Irish voters had rejected the Lisbon Treaty aimed at updating the European Union’s creaking institutions.
Ireland’s population of 4.2 million amounts to less than 1% of the E.U.’s 490 million citizens, but in the mire of the defeat that offered no comfort to E.U. officials. The Union’s consensus-based decision-making system requires that all 27-member states approve the treaty, and a veto by one is enough to torpedo it. Ireland was the only member state to submit the long and confusing document to a popular referendum, and the resulting “no” vote, by a decisive margin of 54% to 46%, has created a crsisis for the E.U. as a whole . . .