A DEAL to enable a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty to take place in Ireland next year was on the verge of acceptance at the EU summit in Brussels last night, in spite of a last-minute objection by British prime minister Gordon Brown.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen gave his EU partners a commitment that the Government would hold a new referendum if the deal he proposed to them yesterday was accepted.
The key elements of the deal involve agreement that all EU states retain a commissioner, and that legal guarantees on issues of concern to the Irish electorate such as neutrality, abortion and taxation are accepted.
Mr Brown raised an unexpected objection to the nature of some of the legal guarantees being sought by Mr Cowen and also to assurances about workers' rights. He expressed concern at the nature of the legal guarantees sought by Ireland and whether they could affect the legal systems of other states.
In particular, Britain is concerned any legally binding protocol attached to the EU treaties that offers guarantees to bolster workers' rights does not enable the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to overrule British labour law. There are also concerns the British parliament will eventually have to ratify any legally binding protocols for Ireland, possibly in a future accession treaty for Croatia.
"The British are hugely sensitive to anything that smacks of introducing treaty changes by the back door," said Jacki Davis, communication director of the Brussels-based think tank European Policy Centre.
But a British source said the concerns were not likely to collapse a deal on Lisbon. "We want to be helpful to the Irish while ensuring the treaty is not rewritten," the source said.
Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme also raised concerns about the Irish demand to give all member states a representative on the commission. Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have all complained a permanent change would make the commission inefficient.
But EU sources said last night that EU leaders were likely to rubber stamp the deal on the commissioner when they meet today to sign off the conclusions of the summit.
Mr Cowen told the summit that while Ireland needed to remain deeply involved with the EU, the concerns of Irish citizens needed to be addressed. He said the issue of the Irish commissioner was crucial, and he stressed other concerns needed to be taken on board through legal guarantees and assurances that would have to be robust to withstand any domestic challenge.
Mr Cowen told his EU partners that if they agreed to this political package, he would commit the Government to another referendum to ratify the Lisbon Treaty.
He said the Government wanted to see the Lisbon Treaty enter into force as soon as possible without interfering with the ratification process - and for that to happen the Government had a duty to represent the concerns of its electorate.
European Commission president José Manuel Barroso asked the other leaders to indicate that if the Lisbon Treaty entered into force there would be one commissioner per member state. On neutrality, abortion and tax, Ireland should be given legal guarantees but these guarantees should not involve re-ratification of the treaty, said the president.