JULY-AUGUST 2008
www.celtic-connection.com
Page 23
Would-be Voters Support Irish Veto of EU Treaty
THE CHAMBER of the European Parliament in Brussels is seen as distant and disconnected by many of the 495 million citizens it represents.
THE NO CAMPAIGN won the day on June 12 when the people of Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty. The question now is what next?
Lisbon Treaty: Ireland says 'No'
DUBLIN - Political leaders across Europe were shaking their heads in frustration on June 12 at the Irish voters' veto of the latest European Union treaty. But many of their citizens weren't.
Ordinary Spaniards, Dutch, French and Britons, who wish they could get the same chance, might also say "no" to the cold, distant heart of Europe.
"Spaniards feel Spanish, the French feel French, and the Dutch feel Dutch. We will never all be in the same boat," said Fduardo Herranz, a 41-year-old salesman in Madrid, Spain.
Herranz said Europeans were right to feel alienated from bureaucrats in the FU base of Brussels, Belgium.
"You don't decide on anything, and you don't get to vote on anything they are talking about," he said of the average voter. "In day-to-day life, out on the street, the European Union is something very distant."
The emotional disconnect between EU commissioners and their 495 million citizens has never been more evident than in the rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon by voters in Ireland, long considered one of the most pro-European voices in the 27-nation bloc.
The complex, 260-page document sought to change EU powers and institutions to keep them in line with its rapid growth into Eastern Europe, but like all EU documents requires unanimity to be ratified.
While all other EU members are ratifying it only through their national governments, Ireland is constitutionally obliged to subject all EU treaties to a popular vote. The unexpectedly strong "no" result announced June 13 effectively acts as a veto.
The EU's political establishment is already calling on all other members to keep ratifying the treaty through their governments alone while calculating what it will take to make Ireland vote again, only this time "yes."
Ireland's government played along with such a maneuver in 2002, when it staged a second referendum after narrowly rejecting a previous EU treaty, then haggling for an appendix that emphasized Ireland's military neutrality.
Many Europeans say this is exactly the problem with democracy Brussels-style, where European Commission members are not directly elected but wield continental powers.
"We're told we can vote no, that the system requires unanimity. But when (a 'no' vote) actually happens, every time, the EU tells us: You really only have a right to vote yes," said Dublin travel agent Paul Brady, who voted against the treaty.
The new treaty would increase powers for the president and foreign policy chief, prune the commission from 27 to 18 members - resulting in only two-thirds of the countries being able to nominate one of their own members in any given term -and trim the policy areas where a holdout nation can block a decision.
"It's OK to belong to Europe, but I do not want to be governed by them," said David Richards, 56, a tourist from Lincoln, England, on vacation in Dublin.
Richards expressed delight at Ireland's "no" vote and said he wished he had the same opportunity in his homeland, where skepticism about all matters EU runs particularly high.
The United Kingdom is one of eight EU members that had waited for the Irish referendum before proceeding with their own ratification through Parliament.
Citizens across the continent complain they have no direct power to influence EU treaties, which are produced in legalese too complex to understand. They say it's not enough that their elected governments help to negotiate such treaties.
Would-be voters in France and the Netherlands appear particularly annoyed on that score. Majorities there thought they had registered powerful statements against EU accountability by shooting down the EU's proposed constitution in 2005.
Instead, most of the constitution's rules for reshaping EU institutions and decision-making procedures reappeared in new packaging two
years later when all 27 governments signed the Lisbon Treaty in the Portuguese capital.
"First they asked our opinion (on the constitution), and we said no. So the second time they didn't ask our opinion. They said it wasn't the same, just some little laws. But it is the same," said Han de Vries, a parking meter attendant in Amsterdam.
"Now the Irish have said no. So in Brussels they will now look again for a way and pass it anyhow," de Vries said.
Rachel Sayer, a French woman spending the summer working in Dublin, said her country "would have voted no again" if given the opportunity to test the Lisbon Treaty.
"I know we voted no to the last one, and changes were made, and our government passed it without a revote. A lot of people didn't like that," said Sayer, 24, sitting in Dublin's central park with friends.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country assumes the rotating EU presidency next month and is saddled with keeping the Lisbon Treaty alive, said "this Irish hiccup" should not affect other governments' in-house ratifications.
DUBLIN - On June 12 the people of Ireland rejected the advice of their political leaders and voted against the Lisbon Treaty, effectively vetoing the Treaty for the rest of the European Union.
The result is a massive disappointment for all the mainstream political parties but has been greeted with jubilation by those advocating a "No" vote.
The outcome has put Ireland in the headlines across all 27 member states as it has created huge uncertainty, with no one quite sure of the implications or what to do next.
The result has come as a major shock to the Government, but equally to the Fine Gael and Labour parties. Many familiar faces at different count centres were looking very glum indeed.
Not only did they see the outcome as a major blow for the development of Europe and damaging to the Irish reputation of being good Europeans, it was a major rebuff to them personally in their own constituencies.
As all 27 EU member states must ratify the Treaty the Irish decision should mean the end of it, and lay waste to the seven years of negotiation which took us to this point
It is, however, very clear that European political leaders were just not prepared for such an eventuality.
President Sarkozy of France, President Merkel of Germany and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso all say that the ratification process for the Treaty must continue.
At the same time they rule out renegotiation as any concession made to Ireland would cause other countries to demand concessions on issues important to their electorate.
Straws are being clutched at, with suggestions that Ireland might vote again or that Ireland finds some way to ratify the Treaty without a referendum. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano would like to see Ireland removed from the Union.
After the final result was officially announced Taoiseach Brian Cowen made a brief statement in which he acknowledged the will of the people.
When pressed by journalists he refused to rule out a second referendum but at that stage he
would have refused to rule anything in or out.
He was also devoid of ideas as to the next steps but when it was expected that at his first EU summit meeting the following week, his fellow prime ministers will be looking to him to produce the solution.
Ireland Under Pressure to Vote Again
DUBLIN - The Irish government has been given four months to devise a strategy resurrecting Europe's grand reform project, with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France suggesting that the Irish may have to stage a second referendum on the incendiary issue.
European leaders have agreed to decide what to do about Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty at a summit in October.
But French and German attempts to pile the pressure on Ireland by pushing all other 26 EU countries to ratify the treaty ran into stiff resistance from the Czechs.
Sarkozy, who took over the EU presidency on July 1, let it be known he wanted the 26 other member countries to ratify the Lisbon treaty as swiftly as possible.
His foreign policy adviser said Ireland should rerun its ballot. Sarkozy also said there would be no further enlargement of the EU until the reform of the EU's institutions foreseen by the Lisbon Treaty were put into force.
While Britain maintains that it is up to the Irish to decide how to proceed, France and Germany made plain that a rerun of the ballot was their preferred option for charting a way out of the crisis.
Speculation is raging in Brussels over what might be promised to Cowen to make a second referendum a less distressing prospect.
The treaty reduces the number of commissioners from 27 to 18, a change that has upset the Irish. Barroso saiditwouldbe "extremely difficult" to tinker with the treaty to make it more palatable (by guaranteeing the Irish a European commissioner permanently).
BRITAIN RATIFIES EU TREATY DESPITE IRISH REJECTION
LONDON - Britain's parliament has ratified the European Union treaty despite Ireland's rejection of the document.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended his government's decision to push ahead with ratification on the eve of an EU crisis summit on the issue. He told lawmakers in the House of Lords he respects the Irish referendum, but that it did not mean other EU members could not proceed with ratification.
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek warned against any pressure on Prague to get it to act quickly to ratify the treaty. He said the situation needs reassessment after the Irish "no" vote.
The treaty, signed by all 27 EU countries in Lisbon in December, would reform EU institutions and streamline the decision-making process. The document is a toned-down version of the EU constitution, which was abandoned after French and Dutch voters rej ected it in 2005.
EU leaders are not unified on how to proceed after the Irish vote. Czech President Vaclav Klaus has called for abandoning the treaty. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk have supported continuing the ratification process.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen says he wants to work with other EU leaders to find a way forward.