Following the EU summit in Brussels last week, Open Europe has published a briefing on the ‘guarantees’ offered to Ireland in exchange for holding a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Despite promises from the Irish government that they would not force people to vote on exactly the same text a second time around, the deal reached at the EU summit last week makes no change whatsoever to the text of the Treaty, meaning Irish voters will be voting on exactly the same text they rejected last year.

EU leaders agreed to attach a series of ‘declarations’ as a protocol to the Treaty after the second Irish referendum and once it is already in force, but the text of the conclusions of the summit notes that: “The Protocol will clarify but not change either the content or the application of the Treaty of Lisbon.”

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said: “It is an explanatory clarifying text which changes not a dot nor comma of the Lisbon Treaty.” The Irish Times reports that former Green MEP Patricia McKenna said that* the ‘guarantees’ given to Ireland were nothing more than a “ludicrous charade” and that the public had been given the false impression of legal certainty when this didn’t exist.*

According to Saturday’s Irish Times, newly elected Socialist MEP Joe Higgins repeated at a press conference that the EU summit was an “elaborate charade” meant to distract attention from the key issues. “The debate on the Lisbon Treaty has yet to be held because we’ve been dealing with side issues.” He said: “The reasons why people voted No to the treaty have not been addressed or rectified, and for that reason, once that message gets across to people, I don’t think they are going to change their vote.”

Saturday’s Irish Independent reported that October 2nd is the most likely date for a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. The paper today reports on the launch of a new group, called ‘Ireland for Europe’, which will back the Yes campaign and will feature Irish celebrities, with Irish PM Brian Cowen vowing to personally take charge of the campaign for a Yes vote.