EU leaders begin a summit in Brussels this Thursday, boosted by the British parliament's approval of the Lisbon Treaty.
That's despite Irish rejection of the reform package in a referendum last week. Assuming the ratification by Britain's House of Lords late on Wednesday also gains royal assent, 19 EU nations will have adopted the treaty, leaving eight still to do so, including Czech eurosceptics. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during a debate in Berlin on the EU's latest crisis, has said the 27-nation EU "needs" to approve the reform treaty, Here we go again ...
Crash upon take-off at Brussels airport ...
al-Maliki signals key deal on oil ... unanimously. There is no other way, she said. The treaty, aimed at streamlining EU decision-making, replaces a draft constitution which was rejected in 2005 in French and Dutch referendums. Overshadowing the Brussel's summit have been protests over high fuel prices by farmers, fishermen and truckers in France, Spain and Portugal, Belgium and Italy.
(Deutsche Welle)
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