Madam, – I very much welcome the legal guarantees which were agreed by EU leaders at their last meeting in June and which do address key concerns as expressed by the Irish people during last year’s Lisbon Treaty referendum campaign.
It is very clear from these guarantees that the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights do not affect the provisions in the Irish Constitution relating to the right to life, education and family life.
There is a legal guarantee which states clearly that the Lisbon Treaty gives no new power to the European Union over taxation matters. This means that Ireland will retain control over our own taxation rates. No decisions on taxation can be made at an EU level without the agreement of Ireland.
There is also a legal guarantee which states that the EU fully respects Ireland’s policy of military neutrality and Ireland will be taking its own decisions over future levels of defence expenditure and whether or not to take part in future peacekeeping missions.
It is important to emphasise that decisions in Europe in the fields of security, foreign policy and defence issues must be taken with the unanimous support of all 27 member-states of the European Union. In other words, Ireland’s policies in the areas of defence and security are controlled by Ireland itself and not by the EU.
I welcome too the fact that if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified that Ireland will have the right to appoint a member to the European Commission at all times into the future.
Ireland and the European Union will pull through economic recession more quickly if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified. Ireland’s economic future is best served by ratifying this treaty. Those who create jobs and who seek to invest in our country want to see Ireland at the very heart of the European Union project. – Yours, etc,
LIAM AYLWARD,
MEP,
Hugginstown,
Co Kilkenny.
A chara, – Cutting through the distracting side issues of abortion law, conscription, corporation tax and the “legal guarantees” and protocols our political leaders claim to have obtained on our behalf, Marie Murphy (July 24th) neatly draws attention to the real cause of my continued objection to the Lisbon Treaty.
The “business community” who, she suggests, we would be foolish to ignore are, in fact, the very same bankers, investors and money grabbing speculators whose gambling with the resources and wealth of our country have dragged us to the edge of this dark precipice, where we now teeter in fear and desperation.
Perhaps Ms Murphy, like many other apologists for this pernicious treaty, considers the real culprits for this economic debacle to be the greedy burger-flippers and hotel cleaners living it up on the minimum wage and the huge growing Irish underclass, surviving on welfare payments in a twilight world of consistent poverty, cold, hunger and despair?
The truth is that the Lisbon Treaty’s sole purpose is to lock Europe, quietly, into a neo-conservative economic model, where the market will hold supremacy over all.
And throw away the key.
In the Europe of Merkel, d’Estaing, Berlusconi and their Irish lap-dog Charlie McCreevy, the voices of the poor and dispossessed will go unheard beneath the clamour for competitiveness, “flexible” workforces and de-regulated profiteering for the rich and powerful.
On behalf of the millions of Europeans looking for a fairer, democratic Europe of social justice, who have been denied the right to prevent the implementation of this Treaty, I hope Ireland will have the courage to stand up to the faceless puppet masters of European power and wealth and vote No . . .. again. – Is mise,
NICK McCALL,
Drumkeeran,
Co Leitrim.