FORUM ON EUROPE:A VETERAN Danish MEP who is a leading critic of the Lisbon Treaty said yesterday that Bertie Ahern will have an extraordinary opportunity next week to improve the treaty in Ireland's interests.
Jens-Peter Bonde, the head of the independent and democratic group at the European Parliament, told a plenary meeting of the Forum on Europe yesterday that Mr Ahern could have any protocol he wished inserted into the treaty at the European summit next week.
"My advice to you is to try and take some of the sensitive Irish interests to the European summit on March 14th. Bertie Ahern will get what he wants since other EU countries want an Irish ratification," he said.
Mr Bonde, an MEP since 1979, said he had 746 queries arising from the proposed treaty document.
Outlining his own objections, he argued that the European Council had tried to present it as a mini-treaty, something that was impossible due to the depth and scope of the changes.
He also accused the council, comprised of all EU political leaders, for what he said was its decision to forbid the publication of a consolidated text.
"This is dishonest and is against the principle of transparency and democracy," he said.
He said that Irish citizenship would be superseded by a new clause in the treaty that adds "additional" European citizenship. Deirdre de Búrca of the Greens disagreed, saying that Irish and EU citizenship would not be in conflict with each other.
However, the core of Mr Bonde's argument was that the power structure would change to the detriment of smaller states such as Ireland and Denmark.
"It will remove power from the smaller nations to the bigger nations. Ireland will lose its commissioner. For small nations, this is a disaster," he said.
Mr Bonde argued that it is clear that Ireland's interests are represented by Charlie McCreevy at the European Commission. But this was challenged by Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness and Labour MEP Proinsias de Rossa, who stressed the need for commissioners to be independent.
Similarly, Mr Bonde said that Ireland's voting strength would be reduced from one-third of Britain's to one-fifteenth and from one-quarter of Germany's to one-twentieth.
But Minster for European Affairs Dick Roche challenged this as "crude" saying that Mr Bonde neglected the double requirement of 55 per cent of member states representing 65 per cent of the population.
"It can be likened to a Gaelic football referee failing to include either the goals or points element of the score at the end of a match," Mr Roche claimed.
Mr Bonde also raised the Laval case in Sweden where the European Court of Justice ruled against an industrial action to force a foreign service provider (from Latvia in that case) to abide by local collective agreements.
Mr Bonde and Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party said this may pose a difficulty after the signing of the treaty, but the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour delegations disagreed.
Another area that Mr Bonde touched on was abortion. He said that the Maastricht protocol guaranteeing Ireland's position on abortion might have to be looked at again in the context of the treaty.
Several speakers including Ms McGuinness, Labour's Niamh Bhreathnach and Thomas Byrne of Fianna Fáil criticised him for bringing up an emotive issue that had no bearing on the debate.
"The Irish position on abortion is enshrined in Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution. Our domestic position is already protected in the EU context by the Maastricht Protocol," said Ms McGuinness.
At the outset of yesterday's session at Kilmainham, chairman Maurice Hayes paid tribute to Dick Humphreys, the chairman of EU reform, who died last week.
Mr Humphreys, said Mr Hayes, had been an assiduous attender and contributor to the forum.