"Not too late" for protocols to Lisbon Treaty "to safeguard sensitive issues for Ireland" - Forum On Europe told

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The co-President of the Independence/Democracy Group in the European Parliament, Jens Peter Bonde MEP, told the National Forum On Europe today that the Irish government should look for changes to the Treaty of Lisbon (EU Reform Treaty) at the summit of EU leaders in Brussels on 14^th March. His IND/DEM Group comprises twenty four members from nine countries, including  Kathy Sinnott MEP for the South Euro Constituency.

Addressing a plenary session of the Forum in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, Mr Bonde said his advice to the government was that it was not too late to look for special protocols to be attached to the Treaty to safeguard “sensitive Irish issues”.   He said references in the Treaty to “undistorted competition” and Foreign Direct Investment could be interpreted as threatening the Irish corporate tax rate as well as the public funding of social services.

 “Bertie has the chance to get what he wants. Why? Because the other leaders want Irish ratification”, said the veteran Danish MEP. “Since you are the only country holding a referendum you can get things exactly your way, because the others would have to facilitate you”.

Responding, the Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche TD, said that the government had been advised that the national veto on taxation, which would remain under the Treaty of Lisbon, would continue to protect Irish interests.  “Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour all agree that this is a balanced Treaty, a good Treaty, a progressive Treaty which will help Ireland continue its progress”.

Labour MEP Prionsias de Rossa also rejected Mr Bonde’s assertion that Ireland’s would lose control over taxation and he accused him of trying “to make political games” out of the taxation issue. “You know that there is nothing to stop any Member State at the moment from reducing its corporation tax to zero if it wants and that will continue to be the position so long as the veto is exercised by Ireland in relation to that issue.”

Mr Bonde also argued that the proposed changes in decision-making and the loss of a Commissioner for one term out of three would lead to a big loss of influence for smaller countries. “It would be a disaster”, he said. However, he argued that it would be easy to revert to the current system of one Commissioner per Member State if all the governments took a unanimous decision to do so.

Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness challenged Mr Bonde on his assertion that the European Union would “disintegrate” under the pressures imposed on small Member States on larger ones by the new voting weights.

“Now in my view, who the hell would want that to happen? Force will disintegrate the European Union. Consensus will keep us going and after fifty yearsit has done a pretty good job.”  Ms McGuinness suggested that her reading of the Treaty was quite the opposite of the idea of a “Godless Empire” being argued by some on the No side. “In fact it will provide for an open and regular dialogue with faith and Church organisations.”

Patricia McKenna of the People’s Movement took issue with a number of Forum Members who pointed out that European Commissioners, as servants of the European Union, were supposed to be devoid of national loyalties while in office. “The fact that Ireland and other Member States all have a Commissioner is, as (former Taoiseach) Garret Fitzgerald himself states, very important to small Member States. The reality is that they do look after national interests.”

Speaking on behalf of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which has yet to adopt a formal position on the Treaty, Blair Horan, said that the legal status given to the Charter of Fundamental Rights in it, was of enormous symbolic importance to workers.  “It encapsulates in one document the whole range of civil, political, social and economic rights”, he said. “Increasingly, the concept of human rights is evolving into the socio- economic sphere, in terms of conferring rights not just principles”.

Businessman Declan Ganley, founder of the Libertas organisation which is campaigning for a No vote, questioned the Minister’s assertion that Ireland’s tax rates were “a hundred percent secure”. However, Michael Geary of Chambers Ireland, criticised Mr Bonde’s suggestion that Ireland re-open talks on the Treaty.  “I cannot accept as logical the proposition that the Taoiseach renegotiate aspects of the Treaty”. 

Green Party Senator Deirdre de Burca expressed surprise at an assertion by Mr Bonde that the Treaty would mean that European citizenship would supersede national citizenship. “There is a recognition in the Lisbon Treaty that national citizenship is the primary citizenship and that European citizenship is complementary to that,” Senator de Burca contended.

“From an awful lot of younger people I meet who have travelled and worked in Europe and feel very European they are very confident in their sense of being primarily and Irish citizen but also a citizen of the European Union.”

Mae Sexton of the Progressive Democrats criticised the use of the term “democratic deficit” by the No camp. “The anti-European Movement never mobilises the citizens that you claim are opposed to Europe to vote in general and European elections. Over the fifty years of the evolution of Europe, you have not been able to mobilise  the masses, you claim oppose European Treaties, to see your point of view.”

The Forum plenary session was chaired by Maurice Hayes, the Chairman of the National Forum On Europe, who confirmed that as part of its current round of regional public meetings, the Forum will be taking the debate on the Treaty to the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis, County Clare next Monday 10^th March at 7 pm and to the Brandon Hotel in Tralee in County Kerry next Tuesday 11^th March in at 7.30 pm. The guest speakers in Ennis will be Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley and Patricia McKenna of the People’s Movement.   Addressing the Tralee meeting will be Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris and Alan Dukes of Fine Gael.

Public Meetings March 2008 (further dates to follow in April):