Counting of votes of the referendum having not been finished yet in Ireland, Jose Manuel Barrozu, the chair of the European Commission came to the press center to announce the failure to have happened and Ireland to have voted against the Lisbon Treaty.  

He said, however, that the executive body of the EU respects the choice by Irish voters. And in a more optimistic way he gave the European Commission’s opinion that ratification of the treaty should be continued in other countries.  

Ireland was the only country to put the treaty question on referendum. The outcome was expected. It’s difficult to count that a juridical text with numerous references clear for the specialists only could be approved of by common voters. Many people said - when leaving the poll stations - that they had voted against just because they did not get a thing there. Well, it seems that the builders of the united Europe are too far from common people. 

The rule is that the treaty necessary for effective governing of the union of the 27 states may only come in effect after being ratified by everyone. The EU with a population of half a billion people got confused by 4 million Irish which is less than 1% of the whole EU population. Half of the full list of Irish voters took part in the referendum and 46.6% of them said “yes”, while 53.4% said “no”.   

The political elite, except nationalists and communists, is perplexed and is reflecting on further steps. They wonder if it is better to re-write the treaty for the third time or to go on with the current version having a hope that the Irish finding themselves to be alone would vote again.   

The general feeling by the EU-members leaders is to go on. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy expressed a hope that other EU members would continue the process of ratification. This point is also supported by the heads of Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Benelux countries. The Irish “no” is a hard stroke on the European integration, and yet it cannot be compared to that in 2005 related to the failure of the European Constitution. The experts say that the Lisbon treaty has not died despite the Irish refusal. The EU leaders will be searching for solution at the Brussels’s summit on 19-20 June. And anyway, the new treaty will not come in force after 1st of January 2009.