TRY AGAIN
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said he did not see any direct impact on the bloc's expansion plans into southeastern Europe from the Irish vote. Croatia hopes to conclude accession talks next year to be the 28th EU member.
EU officials say the hope is that if all other countries back the treaty by December, the Irish can be persuaded to try again in exchange for assurances on issues such as preserving a member of the European Commission for each member country and retaining national vetoes over tax legislation indefinitely.
Cowen said Dublin's EU partners must help otherwise the treaty cannot come into force, depriving the bloc of a long-term president, revamped decision-making structures in Brussels and more effective foreign policy and defence arrangements.
A senior EU official said if Cowen tells EU leaders he cannot win a new referendum, the "plan C" alternative could be to put limited reforms into the accession treaty of Croatia, likely to join in 2010 or 2011.
That might modify the voting system and the distribution of European parliament seats, but it could not include the whole range of reforms defeated in last Thursday's Irish vote.
Opposition to the treaty among Irish voters focussed on suspicion of Brussels and of Ireland's political elite.
Meanwhile, a potentially damaging "who lost Ireland" row threatens to erupt after French ministers accused the executive European Commission of insensitivity to fishermen, truckers and cattle breeders hit by soaring fuel and food prices.
French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier told Europe 1 radio Brussels should have been more responsive to their problems rather than rejecting out of hand President Nicolas Sarkozy's call to use extra tax receipts on petrol to cushion the cost to the worst affected sectors.
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday there should be no hunt for a scapegoat, in what some saw as a pre-emptive strike against such criticism from France, which takes on the EU presidency in two weeks' time.
Commission Vice-President Margot Wallstrom said the EU executive had commissioned a survey to try and find out why the Irish had rejected the text.
