EUROPEAN LEADERS are expected to commit to pushing ahead with ratifying the Lisbon Treaty at an EU summit today, giving the Government a few months to consider its options over Ireland's No vote.
The two-day meeting in Brussels will see Taoiseach Brian Cowen brief his 26 EU counterparts on why the treaty referendum was defeated last week.
He is expected to focus on the scale and variety of the issues involved in the Irish No vote, and to explain that a significant amount of time will be required to assess the Government's next steps.
The summit comes after the British House of Lords voted to ratify the treaty following a stormy debate last night.
Several Eurosceptic protesters were ejected from the chamber, with one shouting "the Irish have voted No" before being ushered out.
In its latest reaction to the referendum defeat, France says that it is dropping plans to push forward with tax harmonisation under its European Union presidency.
Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, said that while the proposal for a common consolidated corporate tax base had not been abandoned altogether, Paris would no longer press other governments to back it over the next six months.
As well as addressing the referendum fallout, the Brussels summit is expected to agree a series of measures to help people cope with rising fuel and food prices.
Mr Cowen has insisted that there is no "quick fix" to the Irish No vote and has ruled out coming to the meeting with a solution on how best to proceed.
But the current holder of the EU presidency, Slovenia, is insisting that a specific timeline should be agreed to deal with what diplomats are calling the "Irish situation".
Paris, Berlin and the European Commission are anxious that Mr Cowen reports back at the next EU summit in October with some concrete ideas on how it can proceed with ratification of the treaty.
Diplomats say that it is necessary to come to a decision well before the European parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for June 2009. However, it is unlikely that any specific options will be floated by EU leaders at today's meeting, which most expect to be conducted in a "spirit of solidarity".
Most states have ruled out renegotiating the treaty.
"One thing is certain - we won't start drafting a new treaty," said French minister for European affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet. "Europe didn't come to a halt on June 13th."
Many EU states are privately hoping that the Government will agree to hold a new referendum in the spring on the treaty if several declarations are added to the treaty, clarifying issues such as tax and abortion.
There may also be a willingness to utilise a clause in Lisbon that would enable all member states to agree to prevent the planned reduction in size of the commission.
This would enable Ireland to retain a permanent EU commissioner.
Ireland's failure to ratify the treaty has left it isolated, with even its closest European partner Britain moving ahead with ratification.
Only the Czech Republic is believed to be having second thoughts about ratifying the treaty.
Its Eurosceptic president Vaclav Klaus has declared the treaty dead, although the coalition government led by prime minister Mirek Topolanek has so far not made any firm decision regarding ratification.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel are expected to try to persuade him at the summit to commit to continuing the ratification process.
This is currently stalled in the Czech Republic until its constitutional court rules on the treaty's compatibility with Czech law.
Meanwhile, the blame game following Irish voters' rejection of the treaty last week continued in the European Parliament yesterday, where the leader of the Socialist group, Martin Schultz, called for commissioner Charlie McCreevy to be removed from his post for his comments on the treaty.
"This man goes to Ireland and says he has not read the treaty and tells people there is no need to read it," Mr Schultz said. "Is that a way of instilling confidence?"
European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, who had earlier addressed the parliament on the state of play following Ireland's No vote, replied: "It's true that I didn't find his [McCreevy's] declarations very fortunate . . . but attacking the Irish commissioner is not the best way of fostering dialogue with our Irish friends."