European Union leaders launch a crucial week of consultation to see if the EU's battered reform plans can be saved after Ireland's stunning rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. Foreign ministers will pore over options at a meeting in Luxembourg today but the real showdown will come when PM Brian Cowen meets EU counterparts at a two-day crisis summit in Brussels starting on Thursday

ISTANBUL - TDN with wire disaaaaaes


European Union leaders will press Ireland this week for answers on how to overcome its rejection of an EU reform treaty including whether it will dare to ask its public to vote again.
Foreign ministers will pore over options at a regular meeting in Luxembourg on Monday but the real showdown will come when Prime Minister Brian Cowen meets EU counterparts at a two-day crisis summit in Brussels starting on Thursday.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said at the weekend France and Germany had British backing for their appeal to capitals to pursue ratification of the text which backers say is vital to give the bloc more economic and diplomatic clout.
As long as Prime Minister Gordon Brown defies domestic calls to suspend ratification the onus is on Dublin to salvage a treaty already rubber-stamped by 18 of the bloc's 27 states.
"We will be looking to Brian Cowen to indicate whether he thinks there is the possibility of a second vote and if so when" told one EU source to Reuters who stipulated anonymity.
Late on Friday Cowen said he was not "ruling anything in or out or up or down" but officials in Dublin believe a second vote would be a high-risk strategy that could heap yet more humiliation on Ireland and Europe if it failed.
The resounding 53.4 percent Irish vote against the treaty makes it unlikely that it will enter force as planned on Jan. 1 2009 but its supporters remain determined to rescue it.

Blame game:
Talk in Brussels includes the possibility of offering Ireland opt-outs in some areas or a protocol dealing with Irish concerns such as the right of all countries to retain one EU commissioner in Brussels.
Explicit assurances could even be provided that EU members would not lose their veto in certain sensitive areas such as taxation. But no one wants to face the prospect a complete renegotiation of the unwieldy text.
A last-resort option being considered in EU circles would be introduce some of the envisaged reforms to Brussels voting rules in the accession treaty of Croatia next year whose entry will swell the ranks of the club to 28.
"That would at least keep the show on the road" said the EU source while conceding it would not salvage the main benefits claimed for the treaty such as more efficient decision-making or a stronger voice for the EU on the world stage.
If no solution is found quickly there is the growing risk of a noisy blame-game over perceptions that Irish voters are merely the latest electorate to give a clear thumbs-down to an EU seen as elitist and far-removed from everyday concerns.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso appealed on Friday for there to be no hunt for a scapegoat in what some saw as a pre-emptive strike at possible criticism from France which takes on the rotating EU presidency in two weeks' time.
Ensuring treaty dead:
Meanwhile the rainbow coalition of groups which helped secure Ireland's shock EU "no" vote were working out how to ensure the Lisbon Treaty really is dead in its current form.
The "no" side brought together an unlikely assortment of campaigners notably including Libertas a slick lobby group run by businessman Declan Ganley who is now considering taking the anti-Lisbon message to mainland Europe.
Also rallying opposition were Sinn Fein the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the anti-abortion pressure group Coir which raised concerns -- unfounded according to opponents -- that the treaty could threaten Ireland's ban on abortion.
Sinn Fein led by Gerry Adams was the only major political party to back the "no" campaign and now says it wants to "support and assist" Cowen in the coming weeks according to Agence France-Presse.
But some still question how clear opponents' objectives are beyond saying "no" to the treaty.
The pro-treaty Irish Times accused parts of the opposition of "gross and dishonest misrepresentation of some of the issues at stake." "It would be helpful if Sinn Fein and Libertas both of whom claim that they are not anti-EU could say how Ireland could get a better deal. There is a cloud with no silver lining in sight" it said in an editorial Saturday.