Dead or just badly wounded? Leaders assess toll on EU plan

Leaders assess toll on EU plan
Brussels summit next week will discuss whether treaty can be salvaged

Editorial: Unloved, thrice rejected
José Manuel Barroso, was at pains last night to urge member states to continue ratifying the treaty, which all 27 governments had signed up to in Lisbon. Eighteen member states have already done so through their parliaments...

The alternative, as Mr Barroso suggested, is for the remaining states to forge ahead and leave Ireland to work out its own relationship with the Lisbon arrangements.

Q&A: Ireland's referendum on the EU reform treaty
What are the implications for Europe's 490 million citizens of Ireland's no vote?

It means one of two things.
Either the EU will exempt Ireland from the treaty for now and then invite to join at a later date (this would mean the republic having to hold a second referendum as they did with the Nice treaty) or
all the EU states would be obliged to renegotiate a new deal with its inevitable endless round of bartering between the member states.
Either way, Ireland's failure to ratify the treaty is a severe setback to the whole process of reforming EU structures.

How will Ireland be perceived in Europe now its electorate has rejected the deal?
France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has warned that there would be "gigantic incomprehension" across the EU if Ireland votes no. Privately, senior Irish government strategists have admitted that failure to ratify the treaty is deeply embarrassing and a body blow to the credibility of Ireland in Europe. They argue that slowing up the process of EU reform would fatally weaken Ireland's influence.

EU referendum: All eyes on Ireland
What’s the worst that could happen if Ireland says no? Will it truly be the unravelling of the Union? My former colleague, EU expert and Director of Studies at the European Policy Centre, Antonio Missiroli predicts that practicality might prevail: The first option might be to organize a second referendum (this would be highly dependent on the margin of the ‘No’ camp win), the second might include a renegotiation of additional Irish opt-outs from the Treaty to satisfy skeptics and/or in the worst case (and given the amount of subsidies that Ireland still receives, no one could possibly want this solution), Ireland would pull-out of the European Union altogether.

Irish 'No' upsets European applecart

EU referendum: What the European papers say

Germany says EU may still still pursue treaty
BEIJING (Reuters) - Germany said on Saturday that the European Union may still be able to go ahead with the integration process without Ireland, following the Irish "No" vote to the EU's Lisbon reform treaty.