German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her resolution to find a common solution to the deadlock over the Lisbon treaty Thursday morning before she left for an EU summit in Brussels.
Irish voters rejected the reform treaty last Friday, raising concerns with the future of EU and casting a pall over a two-day summit of the bloc's leaders that begins later on Thursday in Brussels.
"I am deeply convinced and resolved" to find a solution to the situation together with the Irish people and to use all the power to achieve a "common solution," said Merkel in the lower house of parliament.
Merkel emphasized the importance of the Lisbon treaty to Europe, but she rejected the notion to press and exclude Ireland as it rejected the treaty. "We must ensure that treaties in the European Union are brought forward unanimously. There's no other way," she said.
A high-ranking German official source has said, "We must give the Irish government time to consult," the DPA news agency reported Wednesday.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen is expected to provide an initial analysis of the situation when EU heads of state and government meet over supper in Brussels on Thursday.
Source: Xinhua
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