European Union leaders must press ahead with ambitious policies on climate change and energy to counter surging oil prices and help overcome the political setback of Ireland's No vote, the European Commission chief.
Addressing the European Parliament on the eve of a two-day summit, Jose Manuel Barroso said the 27-nation bloc should not fall into "institutional navel-gazing" over last week's result. The EU should keep on ratifying the text while pursuing a policy agenda that responds to citizens' needs.
"The important task for the European Council (summit) is to show that the No vote regarding the Lisbon Treaty is not an excuse for inaction. We should not have paralysis," he told the EU legislature in Strasbourg.
Mr Barroso was heckled by a handful of Eurosceptical lawmakers, mostly from Britain, who wore green T-shirts with the logo "Respect the Irish vote."
Mr Barroso was heckled by a handful of Eurosceptical lawmakers in the Parliament
EU president Slovenia said leaders would make every effort to agree on a timeline for resolving the problem caused by Ireland's No vote to a treaty which requires unanimous approval to enter into force.
"The presidency is convinced a solution can be found together with Ireland, and that the EU is not going to face a situation similar to the one in 2005," Janusz Lenarcic, Slovenia's secretary of state for Europe, told the debate.
Britain and several other countries suspended ratification of the draft EU constitution in 2005 after France and the Netherlands rejected the charter in referendums. By contrast, London plans to ratify the Lisbon treaty this week.