One of Slovenia’s priority tasks during its Presidency of the EU Council is to monitor the ratification procedures across the Member States. During the Slovenian Presidency, decisions on the new Lisbon Treaty may be taken in as many as 20 Member States. This gives an idea of the scale of the task before the Slovenian Presidency in order to ensure that ratification goes forward smoothly. “During our Council Presidency, in cooperation with the institutions of the European Union, we shall do our utmost to manage all other events and processes in such a way as to enable ratification to proceed smoothly,” said Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša at the press conference held on the occasion of the European Commission’s visit to Slovenia.

 

(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)

 

The Slovenian Presidency is well aware of how sensitive the issue of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty is in the different Member States. President of the EU Council, Prime Minister Janša was making this point when he warned that everyone involved in decisions on how to handle this particularly sensitive project (or phase in the project) should take the broader view and look “not only at the situation at home but also at the situation throughout the EU”.

 

Prime Minister Janša had the following comment on the subject of ratification of the Treaty in Portugal: “I would, first of all, like to state that Portugal has spared no effort and has achieved great success with the October Intergovernmental Conference in Lisbon, as well as with the signing of the Lisbon Treaty in December, also in Lisbon. From this point of view, there can be no doubt about the support for this document – which also bears the name of their capital – not only on the part of the Government and politicians but also on the part of citizens of Portugal. It is, therefore, my firm belief that even if a referendum were to be held in Portugal, its outcome would be favourable and, moreover, that the citizens, Government and Parliament of Portugal have the absolute sovereign right to decide on the way in which ratification is conducted.”

 

PM Janša continued by saying that there may well be concerns about how individual ratification procedures might influence both the debates and the situation in other countries where the circumstances might be a little different, the European Union being linked as it was, in terms of communications and politics.

 

This is all that the EU Council President, Mr Janez Janša, said on the subject of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in connection with Portugal. The above clearly shows that the Slovenian Presidency has not sought to interfere with the domestic political debates of the Member States and that it has no intention of trying to do so in the future. Sufficient proof of this should be demonstrated by the Prime Minister’s statement to the Irish media concerning the referendum campaign in Ireland, namely that “interference by foreign politicians in the referendum debate in Ireland could potentially have unintentional negative consequences for the campaign in favour of the Treaty.”