Madam, - Compare the frenzied interest in the US presidential campaign with the apathy concerning the Lisbon Treaty and you have to conclude Mary Harney was right. On this evidence, Ireland is clearly closer to Boston than Berlin. - Yours, etc,
EUGENE McELDOWNEY, Howth, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Jamie Smyth reports that the European Commission has sent a final warning to the Irish Government and 10 other European governments over their failure correctly to enact into domestic laws the EU directive on preventing discrimination in the workplace (The Irish Times, February 1st).
The Commission believes that the laws of these countries do not ensure, in line with the directive, sufficient protection for civil servants - against bullying and indirect discrimination, concerning the provision of reasonable accommodation for disabled workers, and concerning the rights of NGOs to assist individuals with their cases, among other things.
On foot of the new anti-discrimination provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty, negotiated by the Rainbow Coalition and ratified by Irish voters in 1998, this directive was proposed by the Commission in 1999. It was approved by the European Parliament and by the Council of Employment Ministers (unanimously) in 2000 and came into effect in December 2003.
In the debate on the Lisbon Reform Treaty, many people who would describe themselves as progressive complain about EU law being "superior" to national law. But it is precisely because in previous treaties we have agreed to be bound by European law, which we participate in defining, that the Commission is now able to challenge the Government to meet its commitments.
There is a clear onus on those who reject the Lisbon Reform Treaty to explain the purpose and point of an EU anti-discrimination "law" that wouldn't bind Ireland and all member-states equally. The Lisbon Reform Treaty now provides new areas, including climate change and energy conservation, where European initiatives can be taken and on which citizens all across Europe are demanding action. Surely it makes sense to provide ourselves with common European laws in these areas. And to do so effectively means we need to approve the Lisbon Reform Treaty. - Yours, etc,
PROINSIAS DE ROSSA MEP, Labour European Office, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1.
Madam, - Bertie Ahern somewhat dramatically claims that a No vote in the referendum would spark an EU crisis (The Irish Times, February 6th). He goes on to describe opponents of the treaty as "the same tired old interests retelling the same old myths". He is wrong on both counts.
This treaty has attracted opposition from many groups and individuals who have traditionally been strong supporters of the European ideal. A No vote, far from provoking a crisis, might cause the institutions in Brussels to wake up and to remember whose interests they are supposed to represent.
As head of an NGO working in Romania, and as someone who personally supports the unity of Europe, I have very good reason to oppose the giving of further powers to the European Commission, the body that makes decisions on our behalf but which seems answerable to nobody. I was a witness to the shocking saga of deceit and duplicity within the EU Commission in the course of Romania's EU accession process.
Human rights were trampled on in the name of EU expansion, with the full knowledge of successive enlargement commissioners and their staff. Many of the same staff involved in this despicable power game, where the disabled and the mentally ill were sacrificed on the altar of career and ego-boosting that is today's EU Commission, are now involved in the accession process for the Balkan states. I shudder to think what atrocities will now be swept under the carpet in Serbia and Croatia.
I won't be voting Yes. When the EU Commission and the Council of Ministers show that they act in the common good, then we, the citizens of the EU, should consider giving them further powers. Until they learn to use the powers that they have for the benefit of the weak as well as the powerful, they need to be sent packing. - Yours, etc,
JOHN MULLIGAN, Chairman, Focus on Romania, Kirkfield Cottages, Dublin 15.