Ireland will not lose Commission seat `for 130 years'

The EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, has said it could take up to 130 years before Ireland lost its seat on the Commission, and then it would only be for five years.

Speaking at a European Movement lunch in Dublin yesterday, he accused the No campaign in the referendum on the Nice Treaty of spreading "misinformation" which could be considered dangerously misleading, and some of which was "totally and utterly false."

Proposals in the treaty for change in the Commission would not come into effect until a 27th country joined, when the 26-member Commission would be filled on a rotating basis every five years. "Twenty-six by five is 130," he said.

It was going to take some time before a 27th country joined. "Nevertheless it is clearly written into the Nice Treaty that if this happens then any rotation system applies to all member-states equally. There are no advantages given to the larger over the small in that respect," he said.

In the realigned Council of Ministers Germany, with over 20 times the population, had only four times Ireland's number of votes. "Let me add that in arriving at a qualified decision in the Council [of Ministers] there not only must be at least 169 votes in favour of a proposal but these 169 votes must represent a majority of the member-states.

"In addition, it should represent at least 62 per cent of the population of the EU. By any standards this is a very democratic way to arriving at decisions," he said.

At a time when our freedoms had flourished within the EU "our fellow Europeans in eastern Europe were held hostage. As Arthur Miller described it, [it was] `a theatre where no one is allowed walk out and everyone is forced to applaud'."

It could only truly be said the Cold War had been assigned to history "when all the nations of Europe stand side by side as equals, to once more relight the lamps of Europe that Edward Grey saw extinguished as far back as 1914. "To put it simply, to complete the reunification of a free democratic and prosperous Europe by peaceful means."

As the only member-state of the EU to hold a direct referendum on the Nice Treaty the people of Ireland would not be speaking just for themselves, but also for the citizens of Europe.

"We have an opportunity to give voice to the aspirations of so many who remained voiceless during the dark decades of Soviet oppression," Mr Byrne said.

"As a nation which has relatively recently found its own true voice on the world stage, we should perhaps more fully than others, appreciate what this means."

Nice did not create a European superstate. It did not create a European army. It made strides towards ensuring the peace and security of all its citizens, he said.