The whole EU is watching
RTÉ.ie/Lisbon has complete coverage
Thousand of column inches and kilobytes throughout the EU have been dedicated to Ireland's unique position as the only member country to vote on the Lisbon Treaty.
Finnish paper Helsingin Sanomat writes that Ireland is currently the most influential country in Europe as the other 26 Member States await the results of the referendum on 12 June
Denmark's Politiken writes of the impact the Irish referendum will have on the future of the EU.
Dziennik in Poland has quoted Commission President José Manuel Barroso saying there is no plan B if Ireland rejects the Treaty.
The Lithuanian press criticised their Government's refusal to put the Treaty to a citizens' vote, and the British papers have been covering the campaigns for Gordon Brown to approve a referendum before UK ratification of the Treaty.
The campaign for a referendum in the UK has been covered across a range of publications and last weekend's papers reported that the English High Court is hearing a legal challenge against Gordon Brown on the referendum issue - on the same day as the Irish referendum.
Sweden is not due to ratify the Lisbon Treaty until after the Irish electorate has voted and, mindful that the Irish result could determine the future of the Treaty, its press has carried opinion pieces urging Ireland's approval of the Treaty. A no vote, Dagens Nyheter newspaper warns, could result in EU chaos.
The uncertainty of the outcome has been of interest to many European newspapers and notably the continually wavering results of the Irish opinion polls. The Financial Times featured an article reporting that EU bureaucracy and initiative has been toned down lately in order to prevent any negative influence on the Irish referendum. The article also noted how embarrassing a no vote could prove for the EU.
Particular attention has been paid to the level of undecided Irish voters registered in the surveys, but Ireland is not the only country confused about the Treaty. Prague Post and Právo, two Czech Republic publications, both published surveys which reported that up to 40% of the Czech public has no idea what the Lisbon Treaty is.
The IFA's decision to support the Government's yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum got a lot of attention across Europe with German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung publishing an article on the IFA's success at blackmailing the Taoiseach before lending their support to his campaign. Weekendavisen from Denmark points out that the farmers' votes could well prove the deciding factor in the success or failure of the Lisbon Treaty.
While we may feel inundated by campaign posters, Lisbon debates and Treaty chatter, the Spanish paper La Vanguardia claims the Irish media hasn't shown much interest in the Lisbon Treaty to date.
