In Le Monde, Marion Van Renterghem notices that in the final straight, the Lisbon Treaty is not safe from a deadly fall. By a strange irony of fate, the treaty, which is aimed to make the EU more effective and must be ratified by the 27 EU member states is threatened by those whose country has most greatly benefited from its accession to the European community: The Irish people, who are the only ones to express themselves in a referendum. Ireland has been economically weakened. The "Celtic Tiger" has been very affected by the world-wide crisis and the Irish people who came out of poverty only three decades ago are faced again with unemployment and public deficits they had forgotten. Europe is perceived as a support again. Michael Martin, the Foreign minister conceded that the the campaign will be "extremely tight". The Swedish presidency of the EU warned against the fact that an Irish "no" (1% of the EU population) would signal the end of the Lisbon Treaty. Read the article here.