(OSAKA) - Ireland's rejection of a key EU reform treaty is regrettable but Europe will overcome the setback, Slovenian Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said Saturday.

Irish voters said "no" to the Lisbon Treaty by 53.4 percent to 46.6 percent Thursday, plunging the bloc into a fresh crisis.

"We definitely regret the results," Bajuk told a press conference in Osaka, Japan, where he was attending a meeting of Group of Eight finance ministers as a guest representative of the European Union.

"We don't believe this has a positive effect on the immediate future of the European Union. But we respect the decision," he said.

"The process will continue and I am absolutely certain Europe will find its way out of the effects of the decision," Bajuk said.

Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said the EU was suffering from "a problem of democratic consensus."

The Irish rejection "is a message," he told reporters here.

"One could say it is not rational, but ... we must react," he said.

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