The Immediate Aftermath of the ‘Yes’ Vote in Ireland to the Treaty of Lisbon
3 Pages Posted: 7 Nov 2009
Date Written: November 6, 2009
Abstract
Irish voters may well have gone to the polls on October 2, 2009 with the impression that their vote would ‘make or break’ the Lisbon Treaty. The Irish electorate certainly had the power to break the Treaty. A ‘no’ vote would have finished the Lisbon Treaty and done irreparable damage to the EU reform process. But the Irish vote did not guarantee of itself that the Lisbon Treaty would survive. The reason for this lay in the fact that the Lisbon Treaty needed to be ratified by all 27 member states. Two recalcitrants remained - Poland and the Czech Republic. Their parliaments had actually already approved Lisbon - but their presidents had withheld their signatures.
Keywords: Lisbon, Treaty, Lisbon Treaty, Treaty of Lisbon, ratification, treaty, Ireland, referendum, European Union
JEL Classification: K00, K19, K30
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation