Sarkozy: verdere uitbreiding van de EU niet mogelijk zonder ratificatie Verdrag van Lissabon (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Enlargement of the EU will come to halt if the Lisbon treaty does not enter into force, French president Nicolas Sarkozy warned member states in the aftermath of the Irish No vote last week.
"It is certain that as long as we have not solved the institutional problem, the question of enlargement is stopped de jure or de facto," he said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday night (19 June).
Irish voters rejected the EU's Lisbon treaty last Thursday, but some EU leaders – including France and Germany – were quick to call for the ratification process of the document to continue anyway.
The UK was the first country to respond to the appeal and ratified the treaty on Thursday, but some other countries – in particular the Czech Republic – have shown less enthusiasm.
But Central and eastern European EU states, traditionally favouring further EU expansion, may harm the process if they do not continue to pursue treaty ratification, said the French president.
"A certain number of countries which have some reserves on the Lisbon treaty are the most active on enlargement… the Lisbon [treaty] allows further enlargement. No Lisbon, no enlargement," he added.
Institutional questions need to be solved before letting new countries in and that is "an important factor of motivation" for continuing with ratification of the treaty, he added.
The French leader made similar statements earlier this week in comments seen as directly aimed at Prague and Warsaw.
Mr Sarkozy said he hoped "the Czech difficulty" would be solved by Friday morning however, and added he does not expect finalising of Polish ratification – by signature of Polish president Lech Kaczynski – to be a major obstacle.