The European Union (EU) would not set a deadline to solve the crisis resulting from Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU presidency said early Friday.
"It is very sure that we will not set any deadlines, not for Ireland, not for anybody else," Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country holds the EU rotating presidency, told reporters early Friday following the first day of an EU summit.
The two-day summit, which kicked off Thursday evening, was dominated by the Irish "No" to the Lisbon Treaty in a national referendum last week, which plunged the EU into a political impasse.
As EU leaders were eager to find a rapid solution, they could only agree there was no quick fix at the present stage and more time was needed.
It is very likely that the next EU summit in October "will deal with the question of how to fix the situation after the negative votes of the referendum in Ireland," Jansa said.
Jansa said Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen explained at the summit the reasons behind his country's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, but it would take some time to analyze.
Cowen Thursday sought more time from his EU colleagues for his country to find a solution.
"It is necessary for Ireland to have time now to analyze last week's vote and explore options," Cowen told reporters after a pre-summit meeting with the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso earlier Thursday.
"In doing so we will be consulting widely at home and abroad. It is far too early yet for anyone to put forward proposals," he said.
Siding with Cowen, Barroso assured that Ireland would be given time to decide how to react and to come forward with proposals on the next steps.
"We both agreed that the next meeting of the European Council in October will be an appropriate occasion for further discussion on this matter," Barroso said, referring to the EU summit in its official name.
Jansa said EU leaders drafted a couple of proposals, without disclosing details but saying those would be under further discussion later today.
At the same press conference with Jansa, Barroso urged the rest of the EU countries which have not ratified the Lisbon Treaty to continue their ratification.
"When a country signs a treaty, it assumes an obligation to ratify it or at least to try to ratify it," Barroso said.
"When there is a treaty that was signed by 27 governments, it was not just for fun," he said. "It has been negotiated, which means there is an obligation, an obligation to the others."
On the eve of the EU summit, Britain approved the Lisbon Treaty, giving a crucial boost to the leaders who insisted the Irish rejection was not a death penalty to the European integration process.
The treaty, signed by EU leaders in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon last December, was an abridged version of the aborted Constitutional Treaty, meant to streamline decision making and institutions of the EU in line with the repeated expansion of the current 27-nation bloc.
It can only enter into force after all 27 EU member states ratify it.
EU leaders had hoped to see the treaty in effect at the beginning of next year, ahead of the election of a new European Parliament and European Commission.
The Irish rejection of the treaty risked delaying the process and raised doubts about the EU's ongoing expansion.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday the EU enlargementprocess is effectively "stopped" after Irish "No" vote.
There are currently three candidates for EU accession -- Croatia, Turkey and Macedonia. Of the three, Croatia is seen as being the closest to the membership.
However, Jansa said the EU enlargement should continue despite the current treaty impasse.
"I do not see any reason why we should focus on the enlargementissue here," he said, adding those candidate countries which have been fulfilling the requirements and negotiating the accession should not be the victim of the treaty delay.
Source:Xinhua
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