Brussels, 28/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Ireland is to hold a referendum on the new European budget pact, announced Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny on Tuesday 28 February to the Irish parliament, without giving any idea of when the referendum would take place.
The attorney general, who is the government's legal advisor on constitutional matters, had decided that a referendum would be held, announced Kenny. The attorney general says that because the budget pact is not part of the European Union system as such, a referendum is required in order to ratify it.
The referendum in Ireland will be closely monitored across Europe because Ireland rejected the Nice Treaty in a referendum in 2001 and the Lisbon Treaty in 2008. In each case, a second referendum was held, which approved the treaties in question. (LC/transl.fl)