EU leaders have agreed to provide the legal guarantees, including on abortion, the family and education, being sought by the Irish Government ahead of a planned re-run of the Lisbon Treaty referendum later this year.
The accord is reported to have given the guarantees the status of a treaty protocol, but also explicitly states that they will not affect the ratification of the reforms in other EU countries.
‘There will be a protocol to give a legal value to the guarantees … It is stressed that this does not modify in any way the content of the treaty for the other 26,’ French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters.
It is understood that the British government raised concerns about the mechanisms for providing these guarantees, but these problems were solved during a meeting this morning between the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said the legislation to enable the referendum to take place will go before the Dáil before it adjourns for the summer recess early next month.
Draft conclusions of the EU summit meeting already confirmed that member states had signed up to an international agreement that the Lisbon Treaty would not encroach on Ireland’s policy on neutrality, ethical issues or taxation.
The text concludes that the agreement ‘gives legal guarantee that certain matters of concern to the Irish people will be unaffected by the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty.’
The agreement would not involve any re-ratification of the Lisbon Treaty’ and it would be ‘legally binding’, coming into force immediately if and when the Lisbon Treaty is ratified.
The draft conclusions for the moment omitted the question of a protocol which is the further guarantee that the Taoiseach has sought and about which the British government have reservations.