Celebrate Europe Sure, but Save Irish Sovereignty

le Peadar de Bluit

Ógra Shinn Féin

Cúige Laighean

No one can deny it Europe has been good to us. In fact if we were to engage the Yes side on a ‘What has Europe ever done for us debate?” the chances are it may become quite Monty Python-esque. The seemingly endless tap of European finance that flooded into the 26 counties since we joined the union is the source of endless cannon fodder for the Yes side in recent debate around the upcoming Lisbon Treaty. This fact seems to have impressed itself particularly on a group in Bray who have decided to celebrate ‘Europe Day’ this year with a marked vigour.

“A European food and craft market, seminars, music, song and street theatre will be part of the Communicating Europe Initiative that aims to celebrate the ideals of peace and harmony that lie at the heart of the European Union.” – This is how the upcoming Europe day celebrations in Bray have been categorised by the organisers. And why not? Why not acknowledge and pay tribute to the nominal benefits of our membership of the European Union.

Amidst all this celebration however the people of Bray and the wider electorate in the 26 counties would be naïve to think that the European Union is a benevolent, mild-mannered entity who, as the proponents of the Lisbon Treaty would have you believe, has Ireland’s best interests at heart – for that it does not.

The relative silence of the government thus far in the Lisbon campaign is all too reminiscent of last summer where Bertie & co. managed to steal the day yet again despite a reasonably slow start. At this point we are all well aware of the pitfalls for Ireland which are engrained in this treaty: loss of an automatic right to a commissioner, the halfing of our voting strengh on the council while larger states nearly double theirs, loss of our veto on upcoming treaties as well as in other areas, the ominous commitment to nuclear power, the creation of a single EU foreign minister, the list is extensive as we all know by now.

I am sure that the organisers of this event only want to recognise the positive contribution of the EU in Irish life, although their timing could be better, but it certainly does not follow from that that we thank the EU for all these positive contributions by voting yes for that would be a grave mistake.

The Lisbon Treaty is a bad deal for Europe, the Lisbon treaty is a bad deal for smaller nations, for workers, for democracy, and above all it is a bad deal for Ireland. We only have six weeks left we need to get this message to the people of Bray and the people of Ireland; ‘Celebrate Europe’ – Yes. Lisbon Treaty – NO!