And Ireland says... Yes!

Prime Minister Brian Cowen gets out the 'vote yes' message in Tullamore. Taken from CNN.


This Friday October 2nd, 2009, Ireland held a vote to decide if they would accept the Lisbon Treaty. Ireland as a country is rather special for doing this, since every other country in the European Union had their parliaments accept the Treaty. But Ireland's Law states that the citizens have a right to vote on any big changes that would change the political structure of the country.

And diverging from last year's 53% of Irish people voting No to the Lisbon Treaty, this year, 67% of Irish people voted Yes in favor of the treaty. This is a huge change for the nation and of course, for Europe.

The Lisbon Treaty entails a lot of changes for the European Union and its member countries, since the Charter of Fundamental Rights, among other things, would become legally binding for all the 27 members of the Union, forcing them to change their actual policies. In the case of the Union itself, new posts, such as a President fo the European Council who would last 2 and a half years on the post, are being created. Some things like are being removed too.

It rests to see if this is a positive or a negative thing. For now, we can congratulate the Irish on the unified front they have presented.