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Article: Cowen grates; Ireland and the Lisbon treaty.(Prime Minister Brian Cowen)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 26, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Which way to Brussels?
It looks like being a yes, but some doubts remain
THE future of the Irish prime minister, Brian Cowen, as well as that of his coalition government, hangs by three slender threads. They are the referendum on the European Union's Lisbon treaty on October 2nd; the passage of a new law to take Irish banks' most toxic assets on to the state's books; and parliamentary approval of an austerity budget in December. If Mr Cowen fails on any of these, the knock to international confidence in Ireland's recovery would be serious--and there could well be a general election that his Fianna Fail party would lose.
He leads perhaps the ...