Lisbon Treaty
I will be voting YES on Lisbon 2 and I want to outline my reasons for doing so. Unfortunately the Lisbon Treaty is a complex treaty which tries to reform the complex institution which is the EU. I will explain my reasons by refuting some of the assertions made by the NO side in the Lisbon 1 campaign and in the process promote the reasons to vote YES. I know many onlookers at the last campaign criticised the YES side for constantly being on the defence, instead of explaining the treaty, however the inaccuracies made by the NO side need to be dealt with if we are to have an honest discussion about the treaty.
Democracy
First I must state that I have not read the Lisbon Treaty, nor have I ever read the Irish Constitution or any other legal text. However I am not alone. Less than 1% of the Irish electorate will have read the treaty by October and the few who bother may not understand it fully. I was amazed to see the now defunct Libertas party handing out copies of the treaty to the public during the last referendum. This was a total waste of paper in my view as hardly any of those people read it. The reason so is that Lisbon is a legal text that has been negotiated by highly intelligent and experienced politicians and public servants in the EU. For the most part the negotiators of the treaty were directly elected politicians with a mandate to fight for Ireland’s position in the EU.
This legal text is not meant to be read by the electorate because we wouldn’t understand it and rightly so. Changes in large institutions like the EU need to be written in concrete and elaborate language to ensure the texts’ strength against the courts of law that it may find itself infront of. Many in the NO side argue that the complexity of the Lisbon treaty is in itself a reason to vote NO however I don’t believe this is responsible of them. Everyday solicitors deal with complex legal texts in criminal law, family law etc. representing clients who wouldn’t be able to interpret these texts otherwise. That’s why we hire solicitors.
In my view the Lisbon treaty is so complex that it is not fit to be put before an electorate. This may appear undemocratic however there is a balanced counter argument to this claim. We elect MEP’s and domestic leaders who make these decisions for us. Why should we weigh in on an institutional reform treaty when they can instead? If they skrew it up we elect somebody else to rectify the situation. I would much prefer that this was the case instead of the treaty being decided by an electorate with a collectively lower understanding of EU law and treaties. 46% of the NO voters last time voted so because they didn’t know what the treaty was about.
Commissioner
However the Irish electorate will be deciding the treaty in October and they will be voting on the same question: do you want Ireland do ratify the Lisbon Treaty? The NO side conveniently picks up on statements like this and I accept the fact that the treaty itself hasn’t had a comma changed. However separate to the treaty are legal guarantees addressing the fundamental concerns of the electorate from the first referendum. The first and most important of these is the retention of a commissioner. The NO side easily forgets this when they make sweeping generalisations like “nothing has changed”. The commissioner is one incontroversial difference between the two votes and it’s irresponsible for the NO side to argue this.
Say I (The EU) went to buy a TV from my friend Paddy (Ireland) and offered him an unfair price for the TV and as a result he rejected my offer (Lisbon 1). The next day however (October 2009) I go back to Paddy and offer him the same price only with €50 extra (legal guarantees). The question remains the same “can I buy your TV?”, however the conditions in which the question is asked are totally different.
Taxation and Abortion
Another thing that has changed is the binding guarantees on taxation and abortion. Ireland’s 12.5% rate of corporation tax is sacrosanct in my view and any attempt to tamper with it would prompt questions to be raised about our continued participation in the EU, as would the attempt to impose abortion on Ireland. Besides it’s now impossible to change our rate because of the legal guarantee. What part of legally binding does the NO side not understand. Who is going to try to impose abortion on Ireland anyway? Socially conservative parties like EPP, who is the largest party in the EU would not allow for any country to be dictated to on their sensitive social issues like abortion so any plan to impose abortion on Ireland would be easily defeated in the parliament and in the council, with or without the Lisbon Treaty.
The Economy
The next issue of the Lisbon treaty is the economy, or is it a Lisbon issue? The treaty itself is fairly neutral on economics because it is primarily a reform treaty on the institutions of the EU. The real economic issue surrounding Lisbon is European popularity. Ireland has a reputation in Europe and voting YES surely won’t annoy many of the people we have economic ties with. Also when the EU decides how to distribute its resources, Ireland may find itself at the bottom of the list for grants and other economic benefits. Some say this is classic scaremongering by the YES side however we are the ones who are scared. We fear the fallout from a second NO vote and to be fair there’s more to lose by voting NO than by voting YES.
This is a harsh reality which we face and while this is an unacceptable position to be in, I believe voting YES will give us a reputable position in Europe to change how the EU essentially bribes us into voting their way. Many in the NO side have argued that defeating the treaty had no negative economic effects however what if we voted YES? Would we have seen greater help from the EU in addressing our economic crisis?
Neutrality
Neutrality is another issue which has been at the core of the NO side with concerns ranging from military spending to conscription to a European Army. Thankfully the latter has since been deemed a void argument. The fact is that Ireland is a neutral country and while there are discrepancies about it within our own constitution the EU has been the main group respecting our neutrality and I don’t believe that will change by ratifying the Lisbon Treaty. Again if we were to be dragged into a situation disrespecting our neutrality then we would be easily able to highlight the new legal guarantees, which again enshrine our neutrality, and the problem would go away. The same goes for Finland, Sweden and Austria who are neutral by name only, yet they have all ratified the Lisbon Treaty democratically through their parliaments with no fear of neutrality conflicts.
Power
Remember that the EU must pass all it’s treaties through the Irish electorate in the future. They have absolutely no intention of disrupting our comfortable place in Brussels for fear of a backlash on future referendums. It’s a very convenient form of appeasement and I hope the NO voters who feel that the EU is becoming federalist and too big will realise that the ball will still be in our court even after we ratify the Lisbon treaty.
Ireland is now powerful in Europe and I don’t believe that the new voting mechanisms announced in the treaty effect our ability to swing legislation in our favour. The NO side say that it weakens our voting power and the YES side say it doubles it. Either way any piece of legislation requires a huge amount of support from a majority of the ministers who represent a wide range of countries and populations. If some nations want to pass bill that we don’t agree with then tough! We can’t have it all our way and disregard an overwhelming majority of EU countries.
Veto
Vetoes is another issue which the NO side has blown out of proportion. The veto has only ever been used once by Ireland and it is rarely used by other countries. The time in which we used was regretted by Alan Dukes after he used it and it is widely accepted that the vetoes are out of date and the ones we lose are the ones we don’t need. This helps the EU run more efficiently and it reduced bureaucracy
As I understand it the new voting mechanisms support the concerns of smaller nations and it’s more than coincidental that the governments of Malta, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania have already ratified the treaty. All these countries have smaller populations than Ireland, yet their politicians agree that Lisbon is good for them.
Politics
Such political support is unparalleled and it is rare that we see the three main political leaders in the country campaigning together for a YES vote. Surely this is such a great issue that it is beyond party politics? For this reason alone I’d vote for Lisbon and I don’t intent to appear as a party diehard or a mindless sheep. We elect politicians in this country to represent us and if they all say that Lisbon is good then they’d be making a right fool of themselves if they’re proven wrong. Fine Gael and Labour would love an opportunity to embarrass this government, even more so now than during last years’ campaign. However they haven’t. They see that there is something more important that taking shots at Fianna Fail.
Conclusion
So the bottom line is this. Do you want to support Sinn Fein, Joe Higgins and the rest of the extremists? Or will you follow the established and reputable political parties who represent over 90% of the country and who YOU picked to represent you? Sinn Fein has collectively opposed every treaty since our original entry to the EEC in 1973. (They even opposed that too, by the way) Now I’m not going to go as far as to call Sinn Fein Eurosceptic, however it’s hard to find them in praise of Europe. The Maastricht Treaty, for example, paved the way for the Euro and the Celtic Tiger. Without it Ireland would not have had such immense economic success and we would struggle in this financial crisis. Now we have the same groups who opposed these productive and progressive measures coming out in opposition to a treaty that primarily comprises of a few administrative changes.
This treaty is not revolutionary and it won’t make your life much better. It makes hundreds of small tweaks and changes in the EU’s institutions and tries to make them run better. Please support the efficient future of the EU by voting YES to Lisbon in early October.[polldaddy poll=1738056]
