Inching towards a Second Irish Referendum

Since the Irish rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon on 12 June 2008, the European decision-making machinery has done what it does best: cooling down a hot political debate and carefully building a consensus. The European Summit has now determined what concessions will be made to the Irish in exchange for their ratification of the treaty: the College of Commissioners will continue to comprise one member per country beyond the year 2014 and Ireland will receive “necessary legal guarantees” on certain sensitive matters. Despite this progress, however, the authors warn that it may prove inadequate to extract approval from the Irish in a second referendum.