ITALY:IRELAND'S DECISIVE No vote in the Lisbon referendum has prompted contrasting reactions from the Italian political establishment.
Whilst on the one hand, state president Giorgio Napolitano and prime minister Silvio Berlusconi both expressed their concern and disappointment at the result, government allies the federalist Northern League greeted the No with huge enthusiasm.
In Milan last Saturday, Northern League supporters gathered at an Irish pub to drink Guinness and wave the Irish flag by way of celebration.
A senior Northern League figure, Roberto Calderoli, minister of simplification (bureaucratic and constitutional reform), expressed his Eurosceptic delight: "It's a good job Ireland solved the problem. The Lisbon Treaty no longer counts.
"The people who drew it up decreed that it had to be approved unanimously and that unanimity, thanks to that great Irish nation, doesn't exist.
"Every member country should now do as Ireland and hold a referendum to let the people have their say. But that referendum should not be on the Lisbon Treaty, which would be rejected, but rather on a new treaty whose major objective would be the well-being of all European citizens."
Mr Calderoli's enthusiasm was in sharp contrast with the harsh words of state president Napolitano, who argued that the Irish vote, in the wider European context, represented a tiny minority opinion.
"We simply cannot allow a decision by 50 per cent of the electorate of a country which represents less than 1 per cent of the entire European Union population to stop the reform process."
The idea that the reform process must continue was also reaffirmed by foreign minister Franco Frattini who, whilst he expressed his respect for the "will of the Irish people", also suggested that European citizens should not look on Europe as merely a source of grants and funding.