Last thoughts on the Lisbon Treaty

Last thoughts on the Lisbon Treaty


Liamy MacNally

WHY did we ever have Lisbon 1 let alone Lisbon 2?  The word is that Lisbon is a ‘tidying up job’ from an administrative perspective.  The EU is getting too big so decision-making needs to be streamlined and Declan Ganley is back!
A former MEP, Jens-Peter Bonde, author of 60 books, published a reader-friendly edition of the Lisbon Treaty.  It might have helped if the government dropped that in every post box.  He also wrote ‘From EU Constitution to Lisbon Treaty.’  It makes for interesting reading.  
“In its new incarnation, the EU Constitution is the result of a very successful   piece of secret diplomacy carried out by the otherwise very nice new German Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and her helpers at the Prime Ministers’ Offices and Foreign Ministries…  She had bilateral meetings with a number of key European politicians to start up the stranded EU Constitution again…
The National Parliaments and the European Parliament were deliberately kept out of the negotiations on the revised Constitution.  The public was not involved either.  Every country could have two civil servants taking part, generally one from the Foreign Ministry and one from the Prime Minister’s Office… Only Germany could know the positions of the different countries.  Angela   Merkel went to the difficult countries, which she visited before she took on the German Presidency.  After many consultations, Merkel wrote a confidential letter to her Prime Minister colleagues in which she asked whether they would like to participate in deciding the content of the Constitution if some other name for it could be found.  They said they would indeed.  A total of 16 countries had approved the Constitution when she took office.  They only represented 59% of the EU countries, with 37% of the total population of the EU. The UK had been committed by Tony Blair to a referendum on the Constitution.  The new ratification process was set in motion.  Portugal did not dare to have the referendum that had been announced, because they feared a No vote, said the President of the Committee on European Affairs, former EU Commissioner Vitorino, to a delegation of the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs.
The Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, had the same fear, and abandoned the idea of a Danish referendum…
Roman Herzog, the former President of Germany and of its Constitutional Court, and of the Charter Convention, has pointed out that the EU already decides 84% of German legislation and is a threat to parliamentary democracy… 
So Mrs Merkel negotiated with each country to induce the countries which had announced referendums to cancel them.  To this end, the EU Constitution would be created indirectly through making changes to the existing Treaties rather than directly through the total repeal of the existing Treaties and their replacement by an explicitly titled Constitution… A British think-tank, Open Europe, has allowed a number of opinion poll institutions measure attitudes to a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in a number of European countries. 
Let the citizens of Europe have the last word: “If a new treaty is drawn up which gives more powers to the EU, do you think that people should be given a say on this in a referendum or citizen consultation or do you think that it should just be up to the national parliament to ratify this treaty?””  75% said Yes.
Europe has a population of about 500 million.  Just over 2 million Irish people will vote on the Lisbon Treaty, because of our written constitution.  Many on the No side claim that this denial of voting rights to other member states is the most blatant expression of anti-democracy since the European ‘project’ was instituted.  Some are concerned that Lisbon will also change the status of ‘nationhood.’  The EU, as a legal entity, will supersede nation states.
Under Lisbon, population size gains precedence over countries with the veto being removed from over 60 areas for individual countries.  The No side claims that Ireland’s voting power will be reduced to less than 1% while Germany’s increases to 17%.  The Yes side claims that many of the decisions among member states at EU level do not go to the vote.  They are done by agreement and respect will prevail.  
Sinn Féin points to the ‘irony’ of the EU’s approval last week for a €54 million grant to assist Dell move its Limerick operation to Poland while waving a €15 million cheque for redundant Dell workers in Limerick.   
Woody Guthrie, in his song, Pretty Boy Floyd, wrote: “Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen.”  The pen will be mightier than the bullet in Friday’s Referendum. 
Last time out 51.26% of Mayo voters cast their votes.  61.7% dared to vote No in Mayo. 
Voting is important.