Posts tagged ‘Lisbon Treaty’
Lisbon Treaty: Back to Lisbon again
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009As the decisive day approaches, Peter Cheney reviews Lisbon’s current status and weighs up its chances of success or failure this October. While prospects for a ‘yes’ are better than before, victory for the treaty’s supporters is still not yet certain. Most EU countries will have just one European election this year, with voters attending polling stations with varying levels of enthusiasm. For many of the continent’s citizens, especially the apathetic British and eastern Europeans, the June poll will soon be forgotten with even its winners turning anonymous. Slovakia, where...[full story]
Lisbon Treaty: The case for
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009Brigid Laffan, Chairperson of Ireland for Europe, makes the case for voting ‘yes’ in the Lisbon Treaty referendum. It is generally accepted that the EU has been good to Ireland and that Ireland has benefited from EU membership. The EU conjures up images of EU-funded roads, agricultural supports, reduced roaming charges for mobile phones, the euro and blue flags on clean beaches. From 1973 to the early 1990s, Ireland’s goal was to catch-up economically with the richer European states. Having achieved that, Ireland entered into a different and more uncertain relationship with the...[full story]
Lisbon Treaty: The case against
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009Sinn Féin Vice President Mary Lou McDonald outlines why the Lisbon Treaty isn’t the answer. Last June Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty. 52 per cent of those who voted opted for a better deal for Ireland and the European Union. They were the third electorate to overwhelmingly reject this set of proposals. In 2005 voters in France and the Netherlands, two of the EU’s founding members, said no to Lisbon. While in those countries the political establishment found a way to ignore the democratic will of the people and ratify the treaty without popular consent, the Irish Government...[full story]
