At the same press conference with Jansa, Barroso urged the rest of the EU countries which have not ratified the Lisbon Treaty to continue their ratification.

"When a country signs a treaty, it assumes an obligation to ratify it or at least to try to ratify it," Barroso said.

"When there is a treaty that was signed by 27 governments, it was not just for fun," he said, "It has been negotiated, which means there is an obligation, an obligation to the others."

On the eve of the EU summit, Britain approved the Lisbon Treaty, giving a crucial boost to the leaders who insisted the Irish rejection was not a death penalty to the European integration process.

The treaty, signed by EU leaders in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon last December, was an abridged version of the aborted Constitutional Treaty, meant to streamline decision making and institutions of the EU in line with the repeated expansion of the current 27-nation bloc.

It can only enter into force after all 27 EU member states ratify it.

EU leaders had hoped to see the treaty in effect at the beginning of next year, ahead of the election of a new European Parliament and European Commission.

The Irish rejection of the treaty risked delaying the process and raised doubts about the EU's ongoing expansion.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday the EU enlargementprocess is effectively "stopped" after Irish "No" vote.

There are currently three candidates for EU accession – Croatia, Turkey and Macedonia. Of the three, Croatia is seen as being the closest to the membership.

However, Jansa said the EU enlargement should continue despite the current treaty impasse.

"I do not see any reason why we should focus on the enlargement issue here," he said, adding those candidate countries which have been fulfilling the requirements and negotiating the accession should not be the victim of the treaty delay.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2008)