Juncker sees Lisbon treaty delay

The European Union's Lisbon reform treaty, rejected by Irish voters in June 2008, appears unlikely to come into effect until January 2010 at the earliest, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister, said on the 17 September 2008.

His statement marked the first time a prominent EU leader has acknowledged it would be impossible to adopt the treaty in 2009.

But diplomats said Mr Juncker was merely stating in public what many other European government leaders, as well as senior EU officials in Brussels, were reluctantly coming to recognise.

ESO: Background information: Irish voters reject EU treaty http://www.europeansources.info/record/irish-voters-reject-eu-treaty/

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