No to Europe

Irish voters recently rejected a treaty that was supposed to modernize the European Union.

Ireland's defeat of the Lisbon Treaty 53.4 percent to 46.6 percent in a national referendum last week marked the second time in three years that European voters had halted the EU's plans.

As the Washington Post noted, fewer than a million Irish voters scrapped a document that would have affected nearly 500 million Europeans in 27 member countries.

Ireland was the only country to hold a popular referendum on the treaty. All 26 other nations allowed their governments to decide; 18 have ratified it, and the rest are expected to as well.

The treaty would have established a full-time EU president and given the foreign minister more power to speak for the bloc. It promised to streamline the legislative process and strengthen the role of the member nations in proposing legislation.

Ireland's national leaders supported the treaty, but opponents viewed it as a way for Brussels to seize more power at Ireland's expense. Yet advocates in the Emerald Isle argued that the country owed much to the bloc for helping it become prosperous due to high-tech industry.

Nevertheless, the treaty failed, as a version did during 2005 referendums in France and the Netherlands. Thus, it's back to the drawing board for the EU and following the old rules, which officials say are inadequate to operate a union that has added 12 new countries in the last four years.

The "No" group views the vote as a victory for Irish democracy and treaty supporters wonder if the EU can achieve a deeper unity.

Nevertheless, a small part of the EU, located on its western edge, has put the union's plans on hold.