EU:FRENCH PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy has opened his country's EU presidency by pledging to solve the EU's institutional deadlock prompted by the Irish No vote to the Lisbon Treaty, writes Jamie Smythin Paris
He has also rescheduled his trip to Ireland for July 21st instead of July 11th due to his hectic schedule during the first weeks of France's six-month presidency of the union.
In a short statement to journalists in Paris yesterday, Mr Sarkozy promised to work hard to find a solution to the institutional crisis caused by the Irish referendum result. But even as he briefed European journalists about the need for other member states to continue to ratify the treaty, doubts surfaced about Poland's ability to move ahead with ratification.
Polish president Lech Kaczynski told a newspaper he would not sign the treaty until Ireland had decided what to do, arguing that the principle of unanimity was "binding". As his signature is required for the treaty to complete ratification, it raises serious doubts about the Polish government's ability to deliver on its pledge to ratify the treaty shortly.
The announcement from Mr Kaczynski was greeted with a mixture of dismay and anger at the Élysée. One senior French source said the Polish president had never been a "particularly easy partner to work with in building and shaping Europe", no doubt recalling the tortuous negotiations to draft the Lisbon Treaty at an EU summit in 2007.
But the source said that the Élysée would continue to talk with Mr Kaczynski, particularly on the issue of enlargement, which is a key strategic goal for Warsaw. "It is not a threat or pressure, it is simply a fact. If we do not have Lisbon, we have Nice. What else could it be?" he added.
The Polish problem is not the only challenge to the French strategy to deliver 26 ratifications on Lisbon during its EU presidency. The constitutional courts in the Czech Republic and Germany are both studying the treaty to see whether it is compatible with their own constitutions. Eurosceptic Czech president Vaclav Klaus has also declared the treaty dead following the Irish No vote, although the Czech government wants to ratify the treaty.
French officials hinted yesterday that Mr Sarkozy may engage in shuttle diplomacy between Prague and Warsaw to try to persuade the two presidents.
During his visit to Ireland this month he will try to discover what happened during the referendum campaign. Mr Sarkozy wants the Government to come up with a solution to the rejection of Lisbon before the European elections in June 2009. Paris is privately urging a second referendum, with a senior Élysée official saying yesterday that you can't blame France for suggesting that Ireland vote again when it had already done something similar before. "The issue arises because Ireland did this for the Nice Treaty," he said.
Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald, who was in Paris yesterday for talks with French politicians who had opposed the EU constitution during France's referendum in 2005, said Mr Sarkozy and the French presidency risked provoking a major crisis if they rode roughshod over the will of the people by pushing ahead with the Lisbon Treaty.
Ms McDonald said the announcement by the Polish presidency could provoke an "unravelling" of the French plan to push ahead with Lisbon.
Meanwhile, Mr Sarkozy said that despite the institutional deadlock, the French presidency would work to achieve practical solutions in the fields of immigration, climate change and agriculture.