Irish Sovereignty: Rejection of the Lisbon Treaty

Excellent news from Ireland today… elec­tion results indi­cate that the ref­er­en­dum in the Republic of Ireland to approve or dis­ap­prove the Lisbon Treaty has resulted in a “no” vote: Ireland has rejected the treaty.

Various arti­cles both today and lead­ing up to the ref­er­en­dum have included warn­ings that a “no” vote would “[trig­ger] a polit­i­cal cri­sis” which would lead to “much infight­ing and bick­er­ing across Europe”. Lobbyists for the Lisbon Treaty attempted to invoke poetic guilt by claim­ing that a denial of the treaty would trans­form Ireland “from grate­ful recip­i­ent to begrudger”. The ques­tion remains: what jus­ti­fi­ca­tion exists for Ireland to be a mere “grate­ful recipient”?

The Lisbon Treaty is said to “stream­line” the EU and its Constitution. Ireland is the only nation of the twenty-seven which has held a ref­er­en­dum. All 27 nations must approve the treaty for it to be approved, unless exemp­tion is pro­vided by the EU for a spe­cific nation. The Lisbon Treaty is in the best inter­est for the EU as a cen­tral­ized body. The bur­den of per­sua­sion, there­fore, is placed on the EU. Ireland has nei­ther com­pul­sion nor duty to approve the treaty.

Two sig­nif­i­cant ele­ments exist which serve as giant, blink­ing mauve-alert sig­nals that the Lisbon Treaty is not ready for Irish approval: the con­tent of the treaty and the rhetoric used by its supporters.

Some basic points of the Lisbon Treaty which are not in the best inter­est of Ireland:

• Ireland would have sig­nif­i­cantly less rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the EU.
• The EU would be able to tax with­out an Irish referendum.
• Ireland would lose the abil­ity to decide its inter­nal civil rights and liberties.

The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre has a good, short list of the risks to Irish sov­er­eignty con­tained in the Lisbon Treaty.

An opin­ion piece from the Belfast Telegraph is an excel­lent exam­ple of the rhetoric used to pres­sure Ireland into pass­ing the treaty. Curiously, the rhetoric of the Lisbon Treaty sup­port­ers par­al­lels that used by teenagers com­mit­ting date rape.

Lisbon Treaty Advocate:
“The treaty was born from nearly a decade of wran­gling, com­pro­mise, nego­ti­a­tion and diplo­macy across an entire con­ti­nent.“
Date Rapist:
“Think about all the trou­ble I went through for this! Gas for the car, movie tick­ets… I even bought you popcorn!”

Lisbon Treaty Advocate:
“Renegotiation is not a sen­si­ble option, and it is hard to see what strat­egy would remain post a referendum-defeat. “
Date Rapist:
“You’re not gonna make me go through all of that again, are you? What else could I do for you?”

Lisbon Treaty Advocate:
“Something would surely arise from the ashes, but the impli­ca­tions would be pro­found. “
Date Rapist:
“It’s biol­ogy, baby. Think about my health!”

Lisbon Treaty Advocate:
“Rejection would place the Irish in a unique posi­tion — a nation trans­formed from grate­ful recip­i­ent to begrudger in the blink of an eye.“
Date Rapist:
“You ungrate­ful kid. You were happy to go to the movie, but you don’t wanna give me some­thing back?”

C’mon. I’m being mild about this. The colum­nist in the Belfast Telegraph even went so far as to say the fol­low­ing: “Certainly, there are many EU con­cepts that are fuzzy and imper­fect — democ­racy, national sov­er­eignty and account­abil­ity chief among them. However, Ireland’s vot­ers should resist the temp­ta­tion to poke big Europe in the eye today. Throwing the baby out with the bath­wa­ter is not the way for­ward.” How, pre­cisely, would Ireland have been able to move for­ward and demand supe­rior terms if they signed away their sov­er­eignty and rep­re­sen­ta­tion? By ask­ing pretty-please? No. If Europe wants to bully the Irish, they’d best expect a poke in the eye. In busi­ness nego­ti­a­tions, one would not expect the smaller party sac­ri­fice its only bar­gain­ing chip in order to main­tain unity. Europe can argue that this isn’t about busi­ness, it’s about friend­ship and rela­tion­ships… but friendly rela­tion­ships don’t gen­er­ally involve one party telling to other to sit down, shut up, and pre­pare to foot how­ever much of the restau­rant bill as every­one else at the table decides.

The Irish have been suf­fi­ciently wise and bold to vote no and say that this treaty is unac­cept­able. The rest of the world needs to stand up and applaud the Republic of Ireland for choos­ing to pro­tect their lib­er­ties and their sov­er­eignty. Ireland does not need the EU; they cer­tainly did not need the Lisbon Treaty.