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BRUSSELS - Germany and France moved to isolate Ireland in the European Union yesterday, scrambling for ways to resuscitate the Lisbon Treaty a day after the Irish dealt the architects of the EU's new regime a crushing blow.
Refusing to take Ireland's "no" for an answer, leading politicians in Berlin and Paris prepared for a crucial EU summit in Brussels this week by trying to ringfence the Irish, while demanding that the reform treaty be ratified by the rest of the EU.
The scene is now set for a major clash between the Irish and their European partners after a Dublin minister and sources in the ruling Fianna Fail Party ruled out any chance of a second Irish referendum on the treaty.
Integration Minister Conor Lenihan said that it was unlikely the treaty would be put to the Republic's electorate again.
Meanwhile, senior strategists in Fianna Fail said it would be "politically impossible" for them to try to repeat what happened in 2001-02, when Ireland first rejected the Nice Treaty but then held a second poll which voted in favour of it 12 months later.
"This time around, the turnout was high, so there can be no justification for it," one senior Fianna Fail source said.
"The Government is caught in a political trap. There are local as well as European elections in Ireland next year and Fianna Fail will not risk having to hold another referendum. Within the next 12 months at the very least, there is absolutely no chance that Ireland will re-run Lisbon."
France's Europe Minister, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, said a search was on for a way to accommodate the Irish verdict without derailing plans to implement the treaty that aims to change the way the EU is run and gives the union its first sitting president and foreign minister.
The Franco-German plan, to be refined at this week's summit, is to get all 26 EU states to ratify the treaty as soon as possible, to quarantine the Irish and then come up with some legal manoeuvre enabling the treaty to go ahead.
It is not clear yet how or if this will succeed. "The legal situation is clear," said a European Commission official. "Unless the treaty is ratified by all, there is no treaty."
Jouyet said that "specific means of co-operation" could be invoked to deal with Ireland. "The most important thing is that the ratification process must continue in the other countries, and then we shall see with the Irish what type of legal arrangement could be found."
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "We're sticking firmly to our goal of putting this treaty into effect. "So the process of ratification must continue."
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said: "We must carry on."
The Franco-German refusal to countenance defeat may run into opposition in Scandinavia and eastern Europe, while in Britain the opposition Conservatives will continue to pound Prime Minister Gordon Brown over his refusal to stage a referendum.
Brian Cowen, the forlorn Irish Prime Minister who has been in office for only a few weeks, faces a miserable meeting in Brussels.
He will be grilled at the summit and expected to come up with ideas for a way out of the mess. He is warning that there is no quick fix.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be taking over the EU presidency in a fortnight, is also resolved not to allow the crisis to hijack his ambitious EU agenda.
The manner of coping with the Irish rebuff is more likely to deepen the EU's democracy and legitimacy problems.
There are already calls for the Irish to be offered soothing words on issues such as abortion or corporation tax and then told to stage the vote again.
- OBSERVER
