Fianna Fáil Information: Lisbon Treaty Referendum

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Media statement

Friday afternoon, 13 June 2008

Foreign Minister Michael Martin and other Irish Euro-federalists are already planning to subvert the Lisbon Treaty referendum result by urging the other EU States to continue with their ratification process instead of telling them that Ireland cannot ratify the Lisbon Treaty as it stands, and that further ratifications elsewhere are therefore pointless, and the Treaty must be reopened.

EU Treaties must be ratified unanimously. Each country ratifies a Treaty on the assumption that all other countries will do so too. If one country says that it cannot ratify a Treaty as it stands - in Ireland’s case because the Irish people have rejected it - there is no point in the other countries proceeding, and the Irish Government should request them to stop.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen now faces a momentous choice.

Will he align himself with his own people and respect the Irish people’s vote by telling his EU colleagues that Ireland cannot ratify Lisbon as it stands, and therefore there is no point in the remaining States continuing with their ratifications?

Or will be align himself with the other EU States against the Irish people, and urge the former to proceed with their ratifications on the assumption that Ireland will re-run the referendum when everyone else has ratified, as Bertie Ahern did with Nice. For that is the implication of other EU States now proceeding with ratifying the Treaty with the Irish Government’s encouragement.

Mr Bobby McDonagh and the top civil servants in Iveagh House will already be planning a joint response with France and Germany to insist on the ratification process continuing. Foreign Minister Martin’s comments on lunchtime radio today about other countries “of course” continuing with their ratifications, reflects the policy the Iveagh House people will be urging.

The Irish No vote is on a much more substantial turnout than the 35% of Nice One in 2001. The No majority is much stronger. It reflects much wider concern at the way the EU project is going. Representative members of the Irish political class have broken with the predominant uncritical consensus on the Euro-Federalist project - Shane Ross, Declan Ganley, Bruce Arnold, Ben Dunne, Gay Byrne, Ulick McEvaddy, Prof. Ray Kinsella, Gerard Hogan,

This provides Ireland and Europe with an opportunity to take a fundamental look at the EU integration process.

Neither the Irish people nor the peoples of the other EU countries want an EU that is given the constitutional form of a State, as the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Constitiution proposed, even though this issue was not highlighted in the referendum. The peoples of Europe will not tolerate such a fundamental subversion of their national democracy and independence. Even if this federalised EU were to be brought off, it would not be sustainable.

Instead of the “period of reflection” which was supposed to follow the French and Dutch No votes in 2005, and which turned out to be an excuse for repackaging the rejected Constitution in the form of the Lisbon Treaty, Europe now needs a period of consultation - with its own peoples, with citizens everywhere - and not just a matter of Brussels talking to Brussels.

The best course now is to return to the aspirations of the Laeken Declaration, which called for democracy, transparency and closeness to the people. The EU Member States should now go back to the drawing-board, for their own sakes, for Ireland’s sake and for Europe’s.

Fundamental to any new Treaty is Lisbon’s population-based voting system which is not acceoptable to Ireland or to other smaller States, for it represents a power-grab by the Big States. Each State must retain its national Commissioner, a demand that does not require the opening of the Treaty.

Each State must retain the right to decide who its national Commissioner is, instead of that right being altered to a right to make “suggestions” only. Any future new Treaty should contain special Protocols to safeguard Ireland’s position as regards company taxation, public services, fundamental rights or mutual defence commitments. Laws in Brussels should only be made by people who are directly elected to make them, eitherin the European Parliament or National Parliaments. These are fundamental principles of democracy.

Anthony Coughlan
Secretary

1. Harmonisation of Corporate Tax;

2. Losing permanent Commissioner, Halving voting strength;

3. The “Blank Cheque” Self-Amending power;

4. Superiority of all EU law over Irish Constitution;

5. Lisbon origin in rejected EU Constitution.

* Where is this all going? Harmonisation of Corporate tax:

Article 2.79 of the Lisbon Treaty would insert a six-word amendment -”and to avoid distorton of competition” - into the Article of the existing European Treaties dealing with harmonising indirect taxes - Article 113.

This would enable the European Court of Justice, which adjudicates on competition matters, to decide that Ireland’s 12.5% rate of company tax, as against Germany’s 30%, is a distortion of competition which breaches the Treaty Articles dealing with the internal market (Art. 26 and Arts.101-9 TFEU) in relation to which qualified majority voting on the Council of Ministers applies.

The Irish Government’s veto under Article 113 would thus be irrelevant.

* Where is this all going? Loss of permanent Commissioner and reduction in voting strength:

- Lisbon removes any Irish voice from the EU Commission, the body which has the monopoly of proposing all EU laws, for five years out of every 15 (Art.17.5 TEU).

- Lisbon abolishes our right to decide who the Irish Commissioner is when it comes to our turn to be on the Commission, replacing it by a right to make “suggestions” only for the Commission President to decide (Art.17.7 TEU).

- Lisbon Treaty would double Germany’s say on the EU Council of Ministers; Ireland’s voting weight would be more than halved to 1% (Art.16 TEU).

* Where is this all going? The self-amending Treaty:

- This could be Ireland’s last referendum on Europe - the EU can acquire new competences without another treaty, like signing a blank cheque.

- Lisbon would permit the EU Prime Ministers to shift most of the remaining EU policy areas where unanimity still exists, to majority voting, without need for new EU Treaties or referendums (Art.48 TEU).

* Where is this all going? The dilution of Bunreacht na hEireann and the superiority of EU law:

EU law is already superior to Irish law. Lisbon would further weaken Irish control by adding more competences and powers to the EU.

- It hands over to the EU the power to make laws binding on us in 32 new policy areas, such as crime, justice and policing, public services, immigration, energy, transport, tourism, sport, culture, public health, the EU budget etc.

- It removes a national veto in 68 areas

- Lisbon will give the EU Court of Justice the power to decide our rights as EU citizens - Ireland’s Supreme Court would no longer have the final say (Art.6 TEU).

* Where is this all going? The Treaty’s origin in the EU Constitution:

- The Lisbon treaty is a repackaged version of the EU Constitution (96% the same). France and the Netherlands both rejected it, people across Europe have felt increasing unease about the EU project.

SUNDAY INDEPENDENT, MAY 18, 2008

I’m voting ‘No’ in this Lisbon Referendum. The whole thing is so sneaky, dishonest, under-handed and sinister that I now have neither faith nor trust in the whole approach.I don’t believe a word from the mouths of any of the Yes brigade and I have deep scepticism about any of their promises or undertakings. What we’re being asked to vote on is a series of amendments to amendments to revisions to an existing Constitution and I agree with Ulick McEvaddy that the entire thing is unintelligible bilge – and designed to be so to further obfuscate the issue.

There are 145 pages of this stuff and 132 more of ‘protocols’ plus 50 declarations and – this is the clincher – they all supersede every law of the 27 member states.

I am not a member of Libertas or any other grouping of any kind, and I am deeply embarrassed and offended to find myself on the same side as anyone in Sinn Fein about anything, but that’s how it is.

It matters little to me, for I’ll be dead and gone before this totalitarian superstate really takes over everything, but I feel desperately sorry for my grandchildren that certifiable lunatics in Brussels will dictate every single aspect of their lives. Remember that fat slug, Prodi, when the Irish people voted No to [Lisbon]? “The Irish voted No? Well, they can go right back and vote again, and keep on voting, until they get it right – with a Yes!” And when the French and Dutch voted No, remember Mr Verheugen, Commission Vice-President, declared: “We will not give in to blackmail”. Blackmail!  This is democracy, Europe-style.

One other thing I’ll guarantee: within six months of Ireland voting Yes, our special corporate tax rate will be gone, not because of ‘harmonisation’ but because of ‘competition barriers”. And our veto? We’ll be none to politely told to stick it you know where and whistle Dixie to it.

It’s utterly pointless, useless and pathetic, I know, and it will count for nothing, but this little chap is voting No.

The central issue on which the country will vote in the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is constitutional. All other matters, on which we are being peppered with assurances, exaggerations, threats, cajolement and the absurdities that are promised in what will become a tidal wave of posters, are peripheral…

The Lisbon Treaty, which is the Constitution for the new European Union, has not a single one of these qualities, safeguards or protections. It is like a huge structure of scaffolding surrounding an incomplete building which will never be completed. It is incomprehensible. No one can read and digest it. That makes it impossible to judge on its merits — if there are any — and on its defects, which are glaringly apparent in this aspect of its dense texture…

Among other things, the [Irish] Constitution encourages the people to trust the structures which it enshrines. These include the many definitions of how our democracy works. It is a central plank of the document.

The Lisbon Treaty does the precise opposite. There is no definition of anything for anyone. We do not know about any rights from what we are given. We only know that we are voting ourselves into a new system of laws and controls that simply cannot be permanently defined…

Quite wrongly, and almost certainly inaccurately, the chairman of the Referendum Commission made a public statement to the effect that, on neutrality and corporation tax, Ireland had nothing to fear. It is not his role nor that of the commission, under the legislation, to be supporting the interpretation of one side. He must be even-handed and he must help everyone to a balanced judgment, not a biased judgment…

Nor are any of the other fierce protagonists on behalf of a Yes vote. The sense of threat they indulge in is made palpable by the dishonesty inspiring it. Indeed, the Taoiseach, within his own party, has precluded any real debate at all and is accusing the No Vote side of “confusing” arguments that are banned within Fianna Fail. What kind of campaign is that?

The species of argument that is becoming prevalent among campaigners for a Yes vote is a form of nonsense based on these dire threats.

The reality is that we were all prepared to accept that present and past membership of the Community — and indeed the European Union as it currently operates — yielded enormous benefits to us and that we have been good members. But somehow this has now changed utterly. We can only be “good” if we vote one way. If we do not, we are in danger of not having any of those benefits and of being transformed, by a vote, into being very bad members indeed. This is a form of nonsense that should be confronted by a firm No Vote.

Tony Benn put it succinctly during a visit to Dublin on May 6 when he said that the Lisbon Treaty “is designed to replace our domestic democracies with European bureaucracy”. That is the nub of it, though in fact it is much worse because the bureaucracy, demonstrably, will be weighted against us.

Our Constitution, well tried over 70 years, will cease to have its present meaning. Our democracy, battered by many heavy assaults in power by politicians who have been discredited, will be further damaged. Our citizenship will be irreversibly changed by duplication. And the same duplication will affect our loyalties. We think this is all rosy now; we will think differently in years to come.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/we-should-not-swap-our-constitution-for-europes-1378504.html

“WTO Veto - Cowen again refuses to acknowledge it exists”

Thursday, 22 May 2008

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has again refused to confirm whether Ireland will have the ability to veto the final package that emerges from the World Trade Talks, despite being asked to do so by Libertas, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein, the IFA, the ICMSA, and Labour at today’s Forum on Europe.

The right to veto the WTO agreement is a critical tool in the Government’s armoury, and its loss would be a devastating blow to Irish farmers.

Libertas has received, and made available to the public, a document from the EU commission which confirms its position that the veto has been abolished under Lisbon.

Commenting on this latest development, Libertas Chairman Declan Ganley said:

“What is clear here is that the Government is not answering this question. This strikes us as being strange, given how quickly they have moved to attack other claims about the Treaty.

The fact is that there is no veto. They have given it away under Lisbon. The EU commission in Dublin and the Government have been misleading the Irish people on this key issue.

The veto is a vital tool, particularly in the context of Peter Mandelson’s current proposals which would destroy Irish agriculture.

Lisbon already gives more power to unaccountable elite in Brussels, and now Brian Cowen is refusing to deny that it gives them absolute power over the future of Ireland’s rural economy.

The Government now appear to be guilty of a massive failure of negotiation. In that context, I cannot see how the Irish rural community can support this treaty”.

http://www.libertas.org/content/view/285/1/

[see also: "The Irish Commissioner and Agriclture" below"]

Daily Mail 16.05.2008

By Tom Prendeville

In a prophetic warning from beyond the grave, it has emerged that Eamon de Valera spoke out over 50 years ago about the dangers of becoming entangled in a European Union.

It came in a speech to the Dail on July 12, 1955 - almost 53 years to the day before the vote on the Lisbon Treaty - when the founder of Fianna Fail had returned from a meeting in Strasbourg.

Dev had been to a council of Europe meeting at a time when Ireland was been courted as a member of a new European alliance.

In a speech to a packed chamber, the then Taoiseach warned Ireland could lose its independence, control of the economy and become subject to laws that were not in our interests. Many of these outcomes are feared by Lisbon No campaigners.

And in the run-up to the June 12 vote, the words of one of Ireland’s greatest political figures may be significant for people more than half a century on.

Incredibly, Eamon de Valera’s stark message also warned about the dangers of a European Constitution and getting entangled in European-led military adventures, over which we would have no control. The events he warned so clearly and unequivocally about are now upon us, say anti-treaty campaigners.

He said: “We have always realised that we are one nation and that, as far as physical resources were concerned, our resources were not great. We also realise that, small as were our physical resources, there were spiritual ones which were of great value; and we never doubted that our nation, though a small one, in the material sense, could play a very important part in international affairs. In a Council of Europe it would have been unwise for our people to enter into a political federation which would mean that you had a European parliament deciding the economic circumstances, for example, of our life.

For economic and other reasons we had refused to be satisfied with a representative of, say, one in six, as was our representative in the British parliament. Our representative in the European Assembly was, I think, something like four out of 120. That is, instead of being out-voted on matters that we would have regarded as important interests to us by five or six to one, we would have been out-voted by 30 or 40 to one.

We did not strive to get out of that domination [British] of our affairs by outside force, or we did not get out of that position to get into a worse one.

“One of the things that made me unhappy at Strasbourg was that I saw that at the first meeting of the Assembly, instead of trying to provide organs for co-operation, there was an attempt to provide a full-blooded political constitution, there were members who were actually dividing themselves into socialists parties, and so on.”

On the issue of neutrality, he added:

“In every war fought, those who are fighting will always find good and moral causes for the fight…if the world does not learn wisdom and if there are to be future wars, there will be no dearth of good causes which war will be supposed to further. A small nation has to be extremely cautious when it enters into alliances which bring it, willy nilly, into those wars…we would not be consulted as to the terms on which it should enter”.

- Daily Mail

One-third of farmers are planning to vote ‘no’ in the forthcoming referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, according to an opinion poll published this morning.

The Red C poll in the Irish Farmers Journal reveals that many farmers remain sceptical about the proposed EU reforms.

Less than half are planning to vote ‘yes’, while 27% say they remain undecided.

Most say they are unhappy with the EU Trade Commissioner’s handling of the WTO talks.

[see: Lisbon treaty - Irish comissioner & agriculture, on this site]

Source: Belfast Telegraph

Lisbon removes any Irish voice from the EU Commission, the body which has the monopoly of proposing all EU laws, for five years out of every 15 (Art.17.5 TEU).

It abolishes our right to decide who the Irish Commissioner is when it comes to our turn to be on the Commission, replacing it by a right to make “suggestions” only for the Commission President to decide (Art.17.7 TEU).

Think of what Peter Mandelson will do then.