Why Ireland should say no to the Lisbon treaty

As Ireland prepares for a referendum on the Lisbon treaty in June of 2008, polling indicates that some 60% of the Irish are undecided. Opposition to this treaty doesn't imply opposition to Europe, so much as opposition to a Brussels elite and a mammoth European institution that is out-of-touch with realities on the ground.

Unlike other member states which have ratified the treaty in their national parliaments, the Irish constitution requires a referendum on the type of amendments being proposed by the treaty of Lisbon.

Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and his Fianna Fail party have their work cut out for them over the next few months. Ahern is an EU cheerleader. He has issued rather high handed warnings to those keen to use the Irish referendum to flex their democratic rights in opposition to the treaty of Lisbon.

In an effort to convince the public to go for ratification, the government plans to mail bilingual booklets (in English and Irish) to every household - some 2.5 million all told.

There are a number of reasons why the Irish are absolutely right to have serious reservations about this treaty.

It effectively hands significant power over Irish affairs to Brussels. The treaty will subjugate the Irish people to the will of a political entity that they will not be in a position to influence via the usual democratic mechanisms. According to Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, there is an "unspoken agreement" among EU leaders not to hold any further referenda because they believe that public consultation is being used against the EU. This blatantly undemocratic stance is particularly worrisome when you consider that Article 48 of Lisbon gives the EU powers to amend its own treaties without any process of national ratification. The EU council will be able to make amendments on the basis of unanimity.

Article 9 states that the European Council will change from an inter-governmental institution to a European Union institution. Moreover it would seek to "promote its [the Union’s] values, advance its objectives, its interests". These values, objectives and interests would essentially be determined not via the ballot box but by EU law.

New areas of EU law-making will extend to civil and criminal law, justice and policing, immigration, public services, energy, transport, tourism, space, sport, culture, civil protection, public health and the EU budget. If this treaty is passed, increasingly the direction of Irish affairs will be determined by the directives of a non-elected Brussels Commission.

When you look in detail at what is being proposed by the treaty, it becomes evident that what is emerging is nothing more nor less than a corporate entity, separate from and superior to, the member states - in other words a European superstate. This is a view that supporters of the treaty seek to tone down. In the words of Giuliano Amato, the Italian president - "It is psychological terrorism to suggest the spectre of a European superstate."

Detailed objections to the treaty are outlined in the weekly An Phoblacht, in a point-by-point article by Eoin O Broin. It makes an interesting read because it highlights major areas of concern from the Sinn Fein perspective.

Reservations about the growing power of the EU aren't restricted to the Irish. Former President of Germany, Roman Herzog, puts it this way:

"People have an ever-increasing feeling that something is going wrong; that an untransparent, complex, mammoth institution has evolved: divorced from practical problems and national traditions; grabbing ever greater competences and areas of power; that the democratic control mechanisms are failing – in brief, that it cannot go on like this."

It's wrong to characterize opposition to this treaty as anti-European. In fact the contrary is true. Those who oppose the treaty are expressing democratic solidarity with the people of Europe. A no vote is a protest against the erosion of the principles of democracy within the EU and the empowerment of a small elite. Nicolas Sarkozy is on record saying that if this treaty was placed before the people of Europe in a truly democratic fashion, it would fail. I believe Sarkozy is correct in this assessment.

The Irish are a proud and a free people, who have paid in blood for their liberty. It is my hope that the people of Ireland will seize the initiative and answer "no" - not to reject the EU, but rather to secure an EU that is more, rather than less democratic.