The Lisbon Treaty will oblige member states to increase their military spending and lead to a “greater militarisation” of Europe, an anti-Lisbon group has claimed.
The VoteNo.ie group said today that Article 42 of the treaty specifically states that “member states shall undertake progressively to improve their military capabilities”.
Kieran Allen of the Socialist Workers Party, who manages the voteno.ie website, said it was “perfectly reasonable” to interpret this provision to mean that countries will be obliged to increase spending on the military.
Mr Allen claimed Yes campaigners did not wish to engage in “an honest debate about whether or not this is desirable, particularly in a recession”.
“They have, therefore, claimed that the phrase ‘improve their military capabilities’ refers only to better co-ordination and achieving more for less,” he added.
Mr Allen said the treaty would also give the European Defence Agency legal status.
He said the agency was “the brainchild of the EU arms industry and was the outcome successful lobbying by this sector”.
“As billions is being extracted from the Irish people to subsidise the banking elite, it seems more than impertinent to also ask us to subsidise the building up of an EU military machine,” he said.
Voting No would halt the drift to the greater militarisation of Europe, Mr Allen said.