REFERENDUM ON EU TREATY: 62 PERCENT OF IRISH UNDECIDED
62 percent of Irish voters are undecided about how to cast their ballots in the referendum to ratify the new European Treaty agreed by the 27 nations in Lisbon in mid-October. The finding comes from a survey published by the Irish Times, which has once more raised the spectre of anther rejection of European reforms following the No given to the constitutional draft by France and Holland in 2005 which cost the EU two years of stalling. Ireland, which already rejected the Treaty of Nice in a referendum in 2001, is the only country whose constitution obliges it to subject the new treaty to a referendum, although there are pressures to do so on other governments, such as Britain's. The high percentage of 'don't knows' (at 62 percent), with 13 percent voting against and 25 in favour of the new treaty reflects the fall of the image of the EU in Irish public opinion. According to a poll taken in March 2005, only 46 percent were in favour of the draft constitution, with 42 percent opposed and 12 percent undecided. The referendum electoral campaign has already shaped up as a battleground between those in favour of and those opposed to the EU, not just in Ireland but across the whole of Europe. The leader of France's extreme right-wing, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has already announced he will go to Dublin to publicise his reasons for saying No to the Treaty.
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