Flanders Considers Postponing Ratification of Lisbon Treaty

[Ambiorix]

Flanders Considers Postponing Ratification of Lisbon Treaty

From the desk of Paul Belien on Wed, 2008-07-02 19:31
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3384

Following the June 12 referendum in which Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty, the presidents of Poland and the Czech Republic have announced that they are not going to sign the ratification of the treaty by their own parliaments. The president of Germany has also postponed signing the ratification bill until the German Constitutional Court has decided whether or not the Treaty violates the German Constitution. In Belgium, the heartland of the EU, the Treaty cannot be ratified unless it is approved by the federal parliament as well as the state parliaments in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. It is doubtful whether Flanders, and hence Belgium, will ratify the Treaty before the end of the Summer.

While the federal parliament and the Walloon and Brussels legislatures have already approved the Treaty, the Flemish Parliament so far has not. In the federal parliament the Flemish-secessionist Vlaams Belang party was the only party to vote against ratification. The VB is the largest party in the Flemish Parliament, where a VB politician chairs the foreign relations committee. This has enabled the party to delay the ratification of the Treaty for as long as possible. Yesterday evening the committee finally voted in favour of ratification, with only the VB opposing it, but it is unclear whether the Treaty will be brought to the vote in the plenary session next week, which is the last plenary session before September.

Last February the Flemish regional government decided that Flanders would not ratify the Lisbon Treaty if no cooperation agreement has been reached between the various Belgian parliaments before the ratification. Since the Belgian federal authorities have delayed the signing of such a cooperation agreement, the governing Flemish Christian-Democrats and Socialists announced today that they consider delaying ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in the Flemish Parliament until September. In the federal parliament, however, Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, who is also a Flemish Christian-Democrat, announced that he would exert all his influence on the Flemish politicians to speed up the ratification of the treaty.