JURIST - Paper Chase: Most Ireland voters oppose second referendum on Treaty of Lisbon: poll

[JURIST] New poll results [questions and results, PDF; press release] released Sunday by think tank Open Europe indicate that Irish voters do not support a second referendum on the EU reform treaty [JURIST news archive], formally known as the Treaty of Lisbon [official website; text, PDF], and that they would reject the treaty again if the country held another referendum. The Treaty will not take effect until all 27 EU member states approve the new rules, and its future has been uncertain since Ireland rejected the treaty [JURIST report] in a June referendum. Open Europe's poll, which included responses from 1,006 voting-aged Irish, found that 71 percent oppose a second referendum while only 24 percent support one. It also found that if there was a second referendum, 52 percent would vote against it while 32 percent would vote for it. Open Europe Director Neil O'Brien said of the results:

Voters don't feel that Europe's political class have respected Ireland's decision. Their response to the referendum result has obviously appeared arrogant to some voters. By appearing to bully the voters, EU politicians are actually driving lots more people into the no camp.

Ireland Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin [official profile] has responded that the poll is an "outside interference" in Ireland's dialog on the Treaty and said that the government is working on its own referendum study. RTÉ has more.

Several EU members, including Spain, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, have contined the ratification process despite the rejection, while others, including Poland and Austria, have refused to move forward [JURIST reports] until after an October meeting designed to reconcile the future of the agreement. EU leaders signed the reform treaty [JURIST report] in December, and 14 countries had ratified the document [JURIST news archive] before the Irish rejection. In 2005, an earlier draft European constitution [JURIST news archive] also failed when voters in France and the Netherlands [JURIST reports] rejected the proposal in national referenda.

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