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OUTFLANKED BRITISH GOVERNMENT FINALLY YIELDS TO REALITY? LONDON
'SUNDAY TIMES': "No. 10 ADMITS EU TREATY IS FINISHED" - "In public,
British ministers are insisting that a solution to the impasse can
still be found...In private, the mood among senior Whitehall officials
is more pessimistic. "No one wants to come out publicly now and say
'the treaty is dead'," said one. "But by the end of the week, after
the Brussels summit, that could well be the case."...There are signs
that across Europe political leaders will face growing public
opposition if they disregard the Irish vote."

- o O o -

No 10 Admits EU Treaty Is Finished

by Jonathan Oliver, Political Editor and Nicola Smith in Brussels,
Sunday Times, london,
June 15, 2008.

Gordon Brown is privately ready to sacrifice the Lisbon treaty rather
than allow the Irish no vote to create a two-tier Europe.

Despite the Irish referendum, France, Germany and senior Brussels
officials have insisted there should be no delay in implementing the
European Union blueprint. But No 10 sources say the prime minister
would rather see the entire constitutional treaty collapse than allow
individual member states to be left trailing in a two-speed Europe.

The collapse of the Lisbon treaty would take the heat off Brown as he
faces down renewed calls for Britain to have its own referendum. If
Europe presses ahead without Ireland, it would set a precedent for a
two-speed club, with Britain likely to be stuck in the second tier.

A Downing Street source said: "The legal position on this is very
clear: the treaty cannot come into force until all 27 countries have
ratified it."

One senior government official said anyone who thought the Irish vote
could be ignored was "living in cloud-cuckoo-land". The leaders of the
EU's 27 members states will meet this week in Brussels, but yesterday
the Irish government ruled out forcing through a second referendum.

William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said European leaders had
to heed the no vote or risk looking "remote, out of touch and more
undemocratic than ever".

However, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president who will take over the
rotating EU presidency next month, dismissed the Irish vote as a
"hiccup" that should "not become a political crisis".

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, went further,
stating that the Lisbon treaty provisions, which include the creation
of a permanent EU president and the widespread abolition of national
vetoes, could be implemented without Ireland.

"Ireland for a period of time could leave the way free for the
integration of the other 26 member states," he said.

In public, British ministers are insisting that a solution to the
impasse can still be found. Jim Murphy, the Europe minister, yesterday
told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Only those who previously wished
to dance on the grave of this treaty, even before the Irish
referendum, are declaring it dead."

In private, the mood among senior Whitehall officials is more
pessimistic. "No one wants to come out publicly now and say 'the
treaty is dead'," said one. "But by the end of the week, after the
Brussels summit, that could well be the case."

In the short term, Brown will press ahead with Britain's own
ratification process. Despite calls by the Tories and Labour
Eurosceptics for a delay, the treaty bill will still have its third
reading vote in the House of Lords on Wednesday. "We have come so
far," said one senior government figure, "there is little point in
stopping it now."

In Brussels, meanwhile, after the initial shock of the Irish result,
senior officials have already begun considering the complex legal
mechanisms that might still allow the stricken treaty to be
implemented. The details of any "two-speed" plan have yet to be worked
out, but it is likely to involve devices such as "opt-outs" and
"protocols". One exotic idea being considered is a "legal bridge"
linking Ireland with the rest of the EU.

Another scheme is to link aspects of the Lisbon treaty to the
"accession treaty" of Croatia when it joins the EU in late 2009 or
early 2010.

However, at this week's Brussels summit, Brown will refuse to agree to
anything that could leave the Irish out in the cold, according to
aides.

The only EU leader so far to admit that the treaty is dead is Vaclav
Klaus, the Czech president, who declared the entire project
"finished".

"Ratification cannot be continued," he said.

There are signs that across Europe political leaders will face growing
public opposition if they disregard the Irish vote. A recent poll
among French voters found that 52% believed that their leaders had not
listened to their concerns about the "construction of Europe".

"People feel despised and cheated by their leaders," said Emmanuel
Bordez, a political activist for the Mouvement pour la France party.

Dutch campaigners against the Lisbon treaty were jubilant, declaring
the outcome "a victory for democracy". On the website of De Telegraaf,
the country's largest newspaper, more than 95% of respondents
applauded "Ireland's courage".

Harry van Bommel, the Dutch Socialist party MP, said Ireland's no vote
had left the Lisbon treaty "as dead as a doornail".

Holland, along with France, had rejected the Lisbon treaty's
predecessor, the European constitution, in a referendum, but this time
voters have been denied a ballot.

In Britain, leading Labour figures pronounced the Lisbon treaty dead
and urged Brown to halt the slide towards European integration.

Gisela Stuart, the former Labour minister who sat on the panel that
drafted the original European constitution, said: "The treaty is dead.
If it was right for a 'period of reflection' after the Dutch and
French voted no, it is appropriate for the UK to pause after the Irish
vote."

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4138792.ece