Patricia McKenna on Lisbon

“Fr Hegarty, uses the same bland mantra as the political elite, saying it’s a ‘mechanism designed to help a community of 27 nations function efficiently’.”


Patricia McKenna

FATHER Kevin Hegarty’s column last week, (The Mayo News, June 30) on the Lisbon Treaty displayed an alarming contempt for the views of those he doesn’t agree with and lacked any valid reasons as to why people should vote to accept Lisbon and allow it override our own Constitution.
According to Fr Hegarty, “Many voters approached last year’s referendum in a cavalier fashion. They either didn’t vote or voted no on the basis that they did not understand the treaty and made little effort to deepen their knowledge.”
This is simply not true, despite the fact that EU leaders made the treaty impenetrable to avoid referenda, many people went to great lengths to get information.  Every debate organized by the National Forum on Europe was well attended. It’s also interesting to note that just months before the government’ second referendum on Lisbon it closes down that very forum, denying people access to any type of balanced debate.  Clearly the government decided it’s dangerous to let people hear both sides and just as with the Referendum Commission get rid of the problem. 
Fr Hegarty writes of the ‘depths of disappointment felt throughout the European Union’. 
There is no doubt that Ireland’s No vote caused deep disappointment but only among the political elite, who had conspired to deny their own citizens the right to vote on Lisbon for fear they would reject it.
Millions of our fellow Europeans, who are being denied referenda on Lisbon by their Brussels-subservient politicians are far from disappointed and are hoping Ireland will say No again, thereby providing an opportunity to create a more open, democratic and accountable Europe where people are part of the decision-making process on the future direction of the EU.
He says, ‘opinion polls indicate that the result would be different if a referendum was held now’. 
True, but only because these polls are based on asking voters a leading question, that if their concerns were addressed would they change their vote. Naturally people would change their mind if the issues that prompted them to vote No were addressed. But, not one single word of the treaty will be changed before we are asked to vote again. 
If the Lisbon Treaty comes into force it will be interpreted by the EU Court of Justice and not on the basis of political declarations by the EU Prime Ministers. The Government is trying to pretend these declarations are significant but they do not change the Treaty and are not legally binding as part of EU law. Promises of changes in some future EU Treaty cannot pull back for the Lisbon Treaty once it is in force.
Fr Hegarty uses the results of the recent elections as a pro-Lisbon sign saying ‘of the 12 MEPs elected to the European Parliament on June 5, only one, Joe Higgins, opposes the treaty’ and that I was ‘defeated’.
Firstly, the European Parliament elections were not a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and most of us who put our names forward to the electorate had a broader agenda. Secondly, Fr Hegarty seems to measure electoral success in rather narrow terms. As a first time independent candidate, I considered my own result a victory, not a defeat.  Taking into account that my campaign was barely four weeks long, had no party machine and no funds behind it, getting ahead of the Green Party and retaining my deposit was a major achievement. 
Fr Hegarty, uses the same bland mantra as the political elite pushing this treaty, saying it’s a ‘mechanism designed to help a community of 27 nations function efficiently’. 
Indeed, if it were so harmless a proposal then why has every other EU government denied their citizens a vote on it? He finishes with a quote from Seamus Heaney, one of the long list of celebrities the political establishment have  rounded up to do their work for them, saying ‘Our honour and our identity’ are at stake in the forthcoming referendum. 
This type of banality is just not good enough.  The days when people just did what they were told by establishment figures is long gone. Fr Hegarty should deepen his knowledge of what Lisbon is about and provide justifiable reasons as to why he thinks people should vote for it.

Patricia McKenna is Chairperson of The People’s Movement and former MEP.