Ireland is the only European state out of 27 to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Irish people have this right because Raymond Crotty brought a case to the Supreme Court in 1986 to guarantee a referendum every time power is transferred from the Irish state to the EU. If ratified, the Lisbon Treaty will transfer powers to the EU, thereby affecting the Irish Constitution. On 20 February 2008 the European Parliament approved the Lisbon Treaty. But that was not all that happened in Parliament that day. The so called 'Corbett-de Vigo Report' on the Lisbon Treaty included some amendments, which had to be voted on before the whole Treaty was put to a vote. One of these amendments (Amendment No. 32) asked that the European Parliament 'undertake to respect the outcome of the referendum in Ireland.' In other words: Should the European Parliament respect the result of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? This amendment was rejected by 499 MEPs. Only 129 voted in favour of this motion and 33 abstained. Thus a No vote in Ireland is not going to stop the other 26 EU countries from implementing the Lisbon Treaty. After the final vote on the Lisbon Treaty the president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poetter said: 'A vast majority of you have voted in favour of the Lisbon Treaty. This is an expression of the free will of the peoples you represent. I'd like to congratulate you on this convincing result. This European Parliament represents the people of Europe, this treaty gives the European Union the ability to function properly and this treaty gives it more democracy. And we defend the common values of Europe and' – referring to a few protesting MEPs - 'we shall never allow loud noise to override sensible arguments.'