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EU needs to forget adding new states until treaty crisis is fixed, Sarkozy tells summit
Last updated at 12:25pm on 23.06.08
French president Nicolas Sarkozy at the European Summit.
The European Union should forget about adding new member states until it has resolved Ireland's rejection of a treaty designed to overhaul the bloc's institutions, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday.
But the prime minister of Slovenia, the current holder of the EU presidency, said the impasse created by Ireland's referendum last week should not slow the process of enlargement.
Turkey and Croatia are currently negotiating their accession to the European Union, with several other countries in the Balkans forming a queue to join too.
Sarkozy has long expressed his opposition to Turkey joining the bloc, even if the prospect remains many years away.
"No Lisbon (Treaty), no enlargement," he told reporters on Thursday, at the end of a first day of an EU leaders summit in Brussels dominated by discussions of the Irish vote.
The Lisbon Treaty was agreed last year by leaders after years of wrangling over how to make the EU more manageable but needs approval by all member states to come into effect.
"I would find it very strange for a Europe of 27 (countries) that has trouble agreeing on workable institutions to agree on adding a 28th, a 29th, a 30th, a 31st, which would definitely make things worse," Sarkozy said.
France is due to take over the EU presidency on July 1.
Croatia is furthest along the road towards joining the EU among candidate countries and it hopes to conclude negotiations next year.
Janez Jansa, prime minister of current EU president Slovenia, which neighbours Croatia, said the Irish vote should not set back the enlargement calendar.
"Basically, I don't think there is any reason for those candidate countries which have been fulfilling the rules and have been negotiating for accession should slow down the process," he told reporters.
"I don't see any reason why we should focus on enlargement issue here. This should not be a victim," Jansa said.
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, centre, flanked by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel at the EU summit in Brussels on Friday
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said he expected negotiations with Ireland on what it might do regarding the Lisbon Treaty would take place in the first half of 2009.
The Lisbon Treaty was designed to give the bloc stronger leadership with a long-term president of the European Council of EU leaders, an enhanced foreign policy supremo with a real diplomatic service, easier decision-making rules and a greater say for the national and European parliaments.
Concerns about enlargement were cited when French and Dutch voters in 2005 rejected an EU constitution that was later reworked into the Lisbon Treaty.
Reader views (1)
The E.U. elite has given themselves just nine months or so to get a YES from the Irish. The YES has to be provided before the MEP elections of next summer, so that the announcement of the birth of the new E.U. federal state and its 27 provinces can be made before that time. The terms of the Lisbon Treaty can't be changed, because then other ones of the 27 present countries would have to force through undemocratic legislation again to get approval. Zero chance of that in the U.K. So watch the sweeteners to fly Ireland's way. That's been the history of the European Union. Buy off nationalists. Buy off those who value living in independent countries with proud long histories. Buy them off, and turn them from British, French, German, Italian, etc. nationalities to the new European nationality. The great socialists Brown and Clegg almost fell over their shoelaces to seal the U.K.'s fate as a province. The U.K.: from Norman province, to a world power, to back to being a province. No say for the people on this proud country disappearing. "The few knew was best for the rest." And where was the Queen in all this? She is not supposed to be part of the Government but above it, someone to keep an eye that the Government doesn't act beyond its powers -- such as is clearly the case with the sovereignty being surrendered under the Government's Lisbon Treaty approval.
- Phil Jones, London UK
