Ierland gevraagd datum te prikken voor referendum over Verdrag van Lissabon (en)
The Irish government has been asked to set a date for its referendum on the Lisbon Treaty at an EU summit in June.
The call by Czech Europe minister Stefan Fule followed a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday (18 May) where member states agreed to draw up strong legal guarantees to try and persuade Irish voters to vote yes in its second referendum.
Mr Fule asked the government to make other member states "aware of the date" during the traditional summer gathering of EU leaders on 18-19 June once the guarantees have been agreed, although he noted that it is "first of all the sovereign decision of the Irish authorities."
The issue of the date did not come up during the actual meeting itself, an EU diplomat said.
The government is currently working with the Czech EU presidency on three legal guarantees that the Lisbon Treaty will not affect Irish sovereignty in tax, defence and ethical issues. There will also be a further declaration on workers' rights, but this will not be legally binding.
Irish officials have indicated the texts will be wrapped up before the June summit.
So far, Dublin has refused to be drawn on a date until the guarantees are in place, despite some impatience in some EU circles.
It is likely to ask Irish voters to go the polls on the Lisbon question around the beginning of October.
Although the topic is of great interest in Brussels, the Irish government has been too preoccupied with dealing with the fall-out from the global economic crisis and what it will mean for the local and European elections on 5 June to do much publicly about the Lisbon Treaty.