MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EU summit undecided over the Irish vote aftermath

European Union leaders meeting in Brussels refused to set a deadline for a deal on the stalled Lisbon Treaty after its rejection by the Irish and insisted that real issues as Europe's economic situation are the priority.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it was too early to decide the treaty's future. But Mr Barroso urged other EU members to continue with ratification. "Our first concern is the economic situation in Europe. Oil prices and food prices that's what we are going to discuss" Mr Barroso said. Ireland's Foreign Minister, Micheal Martin, said he did not anticipate a solution even by the time of the next EU summit in October and his British counterpart, David Miliband, said: "It's premature to talk about deadlines". "That council in October is an opportunity to make a progress report but we would not anticipate that there would be solutions on the table in October" said the Irish minister. Some EU officials, including European Parliament President Hans Gert Poettering, have suggested that proposals for what to do next should be ready by the next summit in October. The Lisbon treaty was designed to give the bloc stronger leadership, a more efficient decision-making system and a bigger global say but it can only take effect if it is ratified by all 27 member states of the EU. Nineteen have approved it so far, the latest of which was the UK, where it passed through parliament on Wednesday. Urging Cowen to come up with solutions and calling on all sides to show "understanding and flexibility", Poettering warned that, with the possible exception of Croatia, the EU would not be able to accommodate more countries until the new treaty came into effect. France, which takes over the rotating presidency of the EU from Slovenia on July 1, is also among those nations particularly keen to see a rapid resolution to the problem. Its president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was reported as saying ahead of his arrival in Brussels that he would ask Ireland to hold a second referendum on the treaty. "We will not touch the Lisbon treaty, because if we do we will have to start from zero," one advisor to the French government said. As well enjoying backing from the German government, France has the support of Denmark, with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen calling on the treaty to come into force by April 2009, so as to allow the next European Parliament to be elected in June according to the new rules. Regarding the meeting's agenda Mr Barroso said the EU will back short-term measures to address social hardship, but he has warned that high oil prices have to be tackled with long-term plans.