Lisbon treaty passes final hurdle

Lisbon treaty 'hours away' from becoming ratified after Tory bid to delay royal assent rejected in House of Lords

Wednesday, 18, Jun 2008 12:00

The Lisbon treaty has passed its final hurdle after the House of Lords rejected a bid to delay its ratification.

A Tory amendment to the EU reform treaty was defeated 277 to 184 votes in a passionate session overshadowed by protests from the public gallery.

Four anti-EU activists remonstrated with peers before being led away.

They were protesting at the potential ratification of the treaty just days after it was rejected by voters in Ireland, the only member state to hold a referendum on the issue.

Speaking at prime minister's questions earlier on Wednesday, David Cameron had called on Gordon Brown to 'kill' the treaty.

"The Irish people have said no. Which part of no doesn't the prime minister understand?"

"If the prime minister wants to hear a British view why doesn't he ask the British people?"

Mr Brown responded by saying Tory resistance to the treaty was "not a position of principle... it is opposition for opposition's sake, yet again".

Tonight's vote, which came after the treaty was debated for the third and final time, paves the way for it to be ratified, potentially even ahead of tomorrow's EU council meeting.

There are still other options left open to euro-sceptics, however. Lord Howell, a Tory peer, has tabled an amendment delaying approval of the treaty until October 20th while the implications of the Irish vote become clear.

Two judicial reviews on the treaty are still awaiting judgement. One is by Bill Cash, a Tory MP, who is searching for a high court statement defining the treaty as now being "incapable of ratification". The other is by millionaire Stuart Wheeler who is challenging the government's refusal to hold a referendum.

The fallout from Ireland's no vote on the Lisbon treaty shows no signs of a let-up.

A debate in parliament on referendums last night met with angry scenes when attendees called on politicians present to allow a referendum on the treaty in the UK.

Speaking at a Hansard debate, both Chris Huhne, Lib Dem home affairs spokesman and Claire Short, renegade Labour MP, professed their belief in a referendum with Ms Short calling the government's behaviour "profoundly undemocratic". Some members in the audience expressed deep-seated anger at government refusals to conduct a referendum.

Meanwhile Green party principle speaker Caroline Lucas is calling for the charter of fundamental rights to be salvaged from the "dead" European treaty.

Ms Lucas said: "The EU constitution is now dead.

"Its programme of militarism and commitment to privatisation was rejected by the French, the Dutch and, after having new life breathed into it as the Lisbon Treaty, the Irish. European Union officials must now go away and examine just what the people of Europe demand in a constitution."

But Ms Lucas pointed to the charter as the one aspect of the treaty which could be beneficial.

"This remarkable document, organised under the headings of dignity, freedoms, equality, solidarity, citizens' rights, and justice, should be enshrined in EU law as soon as possible, whether as part of a new proposed constitution or as legislation in its own right," she said.

But European leaders are very far away from giving up on the treaty. The head of the European commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, today urged the eight countries yet to ratify the Lisbon treaty to do so.