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Welcome to the Salisbury
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Welcome to the Salisbury
Association of the
UK
Independence Party
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YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP... But you know they'll try it The French
president yesterday told the group leaders of the European parliament that he
has made a deal with the Irish government to hold a second referendum in Ireland
to ratify the Lisbon treaty first rejected on 12 June by 53 percent of Irish
voters.
None of the representatives of the
Irish people who voted No to the Lisbon Treaty were consulted by the Irish
government before they struck a deal with the French Presidency. The Irish
government has simply ignored the result of the referendum and betrayed those
people who voted No in the majority.
Government ministers, including the prime minister, have
been urging other countries to "isolate" Ireland by ratifying the treaties so
that the Irish could sweat it out and then change their mind.
And what do they deliver as
concessions to the Irish voters? Not one single word to be changed in the treaty
that was also rejected by the French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005
when it went under the name of "Constitution".
Not one word or legal
obligation will be changed. The same content will simply be put in a new
envelope, just as Valery Giscard d'Estaing said about the change from the
Constitution to the Lisbon Treaty. But this time, not even the headline or the
wording will be changed.
It is the same text as the
one that was rejected.
It is legally doubtful if it
is possible to repeat a binding referendum on the same text in the same
parliamentary period.
In the new envelope, there will be
a lot of nice words in Declarations. They have not the slightest legal value.
They will neither change anything in the treaties nor hinder the court in
Luxembourg from deciding directly against whatever the Declarations
say.
Then, they will have the
promise of a commissioner from each member state. Fine. But the Irish
commissioner will be picked by a majority of prime ministers and presidents in
the EU. The Irish government can come up with "suggestions", but other member
states decide.
t would indeed be a
concession if they were to change the treaty and allow every member state to
elect its own commissioner, and it would be democratic progress if we could
elect our commissioner in direct elections together with the elections to the
European Parliament.
The Irish government has simply given in and will not even insist on the right of Ireland to nominate its own commissioner. DECLAN GANLEY AND JENS-PETER BONDE |