Azerbaijan, Baku, 13 June /corr. Trend V.Javoronkova, A.Gasimova / If as a result of referendum Ireland does not ratify the EU Reform Treaty, most probably, a repeat referendum will be held, several European experts consider.
"Principally, currently the future of Europe depends on Ireland, and therefore, it is very urgent to decide it. Even if Ireland says 'no', it does not mean that the Treaty of Lisbon will not be adopted. Most probably, repeat voting will be held and it will be adopted," Dutch expert Dimitry Kochenov said.
"In the period of growing economic uncertainty, the key national interest of Ireland is that the reformed EU works for it. For long 35 years, the European Union has respected Ireland and helped it, and so gained the right not to be considered as threat for us," Prime Minister of Ireland, Brian Cowen said (BBC)
In Ireland, the referendum on ratification of EU Reform Treaty came to the end. In addition, this is called as the Lisbon Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty was drawn up to replace the draft European constitution, after it was thrown out by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005.
The voters in the Netherlands have an experience to vote against European treaties: in 2005 they denied Treaty of Nice on EU's admitting countries of Eastern Europe. Enlargement took place only after repeat referendum.
According to expert of Groningen University, Kochenov, each European treaty should be ratified by all 27 participating countries. Only Ireland presented the Lisbon Treaty to the referendum because all EU countries are already in the process of ratification.
"Currently 18 countries have already ratified the treaty, and nine countries have left which may lock the treaty and one of them is Ireland," Kochenov reported to Trend from Holland via telephone.
According to the expert, Ireland, like entire Europe, depends on how the process of integration develops, and the treaty contains very important items which will give an opportunity to improve function of the European Union.
According to the Greek expert Janis Emmanouilidis , the repeat voting may take place if Ireland does not adopt the treaty.
"If the Irishmen say 'no', possibly the EU will ask the Irishmen to hold repeat voting on Lisbon Treaty at the end of year or in 2009," Emmanouilidis , expert on EU, reported to Trend over a telephone from Greece on 13 June.
According to him, if Ireland adopts the treaty, it may take effect from January 2009 onwards and reflects positive innovations.
After ratification the Treaty of Lisbon was called to change the legal base. Currently it is based on two basic documents: Treaty on European Union and Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The reform deals with the EU decision-making system.
The correspondent can be contacted at [email protected]