What happens if Lisbon II is defeated?

[McDave]

... but, IMO, the wheels will be set in motion for a two speed Europe. The current arrangements will be allowed to stand for the 27 and all new entrants. Accession conditions will be eased to allow new member states in pretty short order.

A new core EU arrangement (with about 10 members, initially) will then emerge over the next 10-15 years including the following essential features:

- A Constitution for (Core) Europe;
- Eurozone membership;
- Institutions which will ensure a common stance within the wider EU;
- A coordinated foreign policy; and
- A core EU military (army + arms industry).

Non-core EU states might be allowed to join individual chapters of Core EU Constitution (say membership of the Euro), but will have to subscribe to the conditions set out therein, which by my reckoning would also require subscribing to any other provisions deemed essential to the stability of the Euro (e.g. harmonisation [but not setting] of tax rates).

* * *

The funny thing about this scenario is that Ireland might have a much more serious debate about a new core Europe than it's prepared to engage in over Lisbon. Probably because there'd be no BS to hide behind. You'd be for it or agin it!!! Would we be for it? I actually think in some perverse way we might be.

[Fr. Dougal McGuire]

The voters refused a referendum will be very grateful.

[Oblivion]

What happens if Lisbon II is defeated?

Best out of five?

[CookieMonster]

Best out of five?

Cowen and Perpetual Parliament President Barosse to take it down to rock-paper-scissors or mudwrestle in Parc Léopold?

[COMMIE]

You keep voting till you get the right answer.

[CookieMonster]

We'll be cast out, cast out I tell you! Cast out to the sea, away from the heart of Europe to the sea!!!!!!

They're all gone now and there isn't anything more Europe can do to me... No French President at all can be living forever and we must be satisfied.

[COMMIE]

So are these gaurantees binding?. Any LINKS

[CookieMonster]

So are these gaurantees binding?. Any LINKS

Yes, yes they are.

*tries hard to look believable*

[theghost]

So are these gaurantees binding?. Any LINKS

Not worth the paper they're written on

[FutureTaoiseach]

If we vote no then the Tories will reverse ratification, hold a referendum in the UK, and then that will be the end of the sorry saga that has been the EU Constitution/Lisbon. It will be recalled as a period when the EU lost the run of itself in the ravenous hunger of its political-elites to turn it into a superstate, to the point even of holding referenda and then violating the spirit of what the voters had said. In the short-to-medium term I would also hope FF/FG/Labour take a second no as a broader message that the time has come for them to take a more questioning attitude to the EU. Noone is talking about leaving the EU - that is not what I mean. What I mean is that the time has come for the politicians to hold the EU to the standards they hold their opposing parties to.