More diary dates and referendum news in brief...
EVENTS TODAY
9.30am:Labour Party and SDLP joint press conference to urge support for the Lisbon Treaty. Stormont Hotel, Belfast.
From 11am:Fianna Fáil "Yes Bus", with Máire Hoctor TD, visits north Tipperary. (11am Cloughjordan, 11.35am Borrisokane, 12.05pm Nenagh, 1.10pm Borrisoleigh, 2pm Thurles, 3.20pm Templemore, 4pm Roscrea).
1.45pm:Trade union seminar on the Lisbon Treaty, organised by CPSU. Main speakers, Ruairí Quinn, Mary Lou McDonald, Joe Higgins and Blair Horan. Davenport Hotel, Dublin.
2pm:Fianna Fáil press conference on "the values contained in the Lisbon Reform Treaty". Alexander Hotel, Dublin.
8pm:People Before Profit public meeting, "The case against the Lisbon Treaty". Speaker Kieran Allen. Malahide Community School, Co Dublin.
EU has come to a 'halt' - and it's all the 'fault of the Irish'
"RARELY HAVE so few voters caused so many jitters across so many capitals," writes reporter Stephen Castle in the International Herald Tribuneas he takes the pre-referendum temperature of the EU.
In a piece headlined "Irish vote brings European Union to a halt", he echoes what several No campaigners have been saying for weeks. Castle notes caustically that the European Union, "never famous for speedy decision-making, is working more slowly than ever, and it is all the fault of the Irish".
With polls showing that many voters remain undecided on the treaty, the possibility that it may be rejected has sent "unfamiliar tremors of fear through the ranks of Europe's top bureaucrats, who rarely have to trouble with voters".
There is, he writes, an "unacknowledged but collective halt on anything controversial - particularly if it might upset Irish sensibilities . . . Initiatives likely to worry or annoy Irish voters are being played down or delayed."
One EU diplomat tells him: "We all know this is happening, but we e all denying it - so you won't get me saying anything on the record." Castle notes that while in March the EU's 27 heads of government held "one of their least eventful meetings in recent memory", their next meeting - seven days after the referendum - has a packed agenda.
He says little has been heard about plans to increase European defence co-operation, the review of the EU budget, or initiatives such as the bid to harmonise corporate taxation. Delaying until after June 12th is the preferred option, he notes.
A modest prize awaits writer of Swiftian rework of treaty
When the Boyne Writers Group announced it was awarding a prize to commemorate Jonathan Swift for the best satirical treatment of the Lisbon Treaty referendum, it advised that familiarity with the treaty was not a requirement for entry.
The winner will be announced at this weekend's Trim Swift Festival.
Wannabe Swifts were told their entries would be judged on the basis of "satire, irony, absurd humour, acute political insight, grotesque imagination, and lacerating wit".
A total of 36 entries were received and former Socialist party TD Joe Higgins judged the competition.
Paddy Smyth of the Boyne Writers Group remains tight-lipped about the winner but the successful entry "takes an approach very much along the lines of Swift's A Modest Proposal".
Czechs prepare two scenarios - one with Lisbon, one without
THE CZECH Republic is preparing two scenarios for when it takes over the EU presidency next January - one with the Lisbon Treaty and a second without it - Czech deputy prime minister for European affairs Alexandr Vondra has said.
He told parliamentarians in the country's European affairs committee that it was necessary to consider the possibility that the Lisbon Treaty would not come into effect due to the "tense" situation in Ireland, "where the approval of the document in a referendum scheduled for June 12th is not sure", according to Czech media reports.
But Cyril Svoboda, head of the government legislative council, told local media last week the Czech Republic may not be able to ratify the treaty by the end of the year either.
"At the moment there are two countries that Brussels can consider problematic in view of the treaty's approval. Besides Ireland that holds a referendum, it is the Czech Republic," Mr Svoboda told media.
"From a business perspective, the Lisbon Treaty is a complete no brainer" - Brendan Butler of Ibec rejects Sinn Féin's view that a Yes vote would be bad for business