French president Nicolas Sarkozy today praised the courage of the Irish Government in staging another referendum on the Lisbon Treaty next year.
After securing a deal at last week's EU summit offering Irish voters concessions designed to win a Yes result, he told MEPs it had been right to answer Ireland's concerns.
Addressing the European Parliament before handing over the EU presidency to the Czech Republic at the end of the month, he said it had been essential to address the problems of the one member state which has not ratified the Treaty.
"When I suggested that we should consult our Irish friends again, people said I was not being respectful of the Irish, by asking them to vote again," said Mr Sarkozy.
"But today 25 countries have almost concluded the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty, and in the 26th, the Czech Republic, the constitutional court has just indicated that ratification can go ahead.
"So that left us with the Irish case, and we have now given guarantees: if the Lisbon Treaty comes into being, there will be one commissioner per member state. This required an effort by some countries who believe that, to be effective, we need a smaller EU Commission.
"But we can only have the Lisbon Treaty if our Irish friends vote Yes. and for that to happen, something new has to appear, and that is one commissioner per country."
Mr Sarkozy said the other guarantees to Ireland — political commitments safeguarding neutrality, tax sovereignty and no EU interference in abortion laws - were "no problem" for the rest of Europe.
He went on: "But the problem is the legal form of those political commitments. In Ireland there is the constitutional court, and no doubt people wanting to vote No would go to that court to ask for the (summit) agreements to be complied with.
"So what we now need is not re-ratification by all countries — we have no interest in solving one problem to create 26 others.
"On the other hand, when we have the next enlargement of Europe, probably to take in Croatia in 2010 or 2011, we will then need a new treaty to extend the EU to admit the newcomer.
"So what we have proposed is that when this enlargement takes place — and only then — we will add to the Croatia accession treaty the so called 'Irish protocol' with these guarantees."
President Sarkozy said: "So at the first enlargement after all this, we will make these adjustments, and the Irish Government has courageously promised to hold a new referendum of the people before the end of 2009.
"And if things happen as I want them to happen, the Lisbon Treaty will become a reality only one year late."
The fall-out from the Irish referendum rejection was the first political headache president Sarkozy inherited when he took over the EU helm last July. He has also had to coordinate Europe's response to the financial crisis, and mediate on Europe's behalf in the conflict between Russia and
Georgia during his term of EU office.
And at last week's summit he won deals on economic recovery and climate change, as well as smoothing the way for Ireland.
He said today he has thoroughly enjoyed his six months in charge of EU affairs.
"Europe is not the enemy of nations and nations are not the enemy of Europe" he said. "The thing is, if we hadn't tried to understand the problems of our democratic governments, we couldn't have got what we achieved."
PA