EU wants inputs from Ireland on how to overcome referendum jolt

Brussels: European Union leaders will press Ireland this week for answers on how to overcome its rejection of an EU reform treaty, including whether it will dare to ask its public to vote again.

Foreign ministers will pore over options at a regular meeting in Luxembourg today but the real showdown will come when Prime Minister Brian Cowen meets EU counterparts at a two-day crisis summit in Brussels starting on Thursday.

British backing

President Nicolas Sarkozy said at the weekend France and Germany had British backing for their appeal to capitals to pursue ratification of the text, which backers say is vital to give the bloc more economic and diplomatic clout.

As long as Prime Minister Gordon Brown defies domestic calls to suspend ratification, the onus is on Dublin to salvage a treaty already rubber-stamped by 18 of the bloc's 27 states.

"We will be looking to Brian Cowen to indicate whether he thinks there is the possibility of a second vote, and if so, when," said one EU source who stipulated anonymity.

Launched to much fanfare a year ago, the Lisbon Treaty is a densely worded pact which includes many of the reforms proposed by the planned EU constitution, killed off by "no" votes in France and the Netherlands in 2005.

Late on Friday Cowen said he was not "ruling anything in or out or up or down".

Crisis summit to follow

The European Union must help find a solution on how to move forward with the bloc's reform treaty after Irish voters rejected the document, Irish prime minister Brian Cowen said.

European leaders have said they will continue to pursue ratifying the treaty despite Friday's resounding "no" vote in the only country of the bloc's 27 to hold a referendum.

Cowen is expected to be pressed by EU counterparts at a crisis summit in Brussels next week on how he plans to tackle the setback including whether a second vote is an option.

"I want Europe to try and provide some of the solution as well as just suggesting that it is just Ireland's problem alone," Cowen told public broadcaster RTE yesterday.

"Although Ireland has a position here that we have to try and deal with." Cowen, who took over as prime minister last month, said there was "no obvious solution before us".

"As things stand if there is no change, if there are no political developments, if we can't come up with any solutions then obviously this treaty does not proceed," he said.