*People’s Movement*
*Gluaiseacht an Phobail*
*Press Statement
*
Falls to the Irish people to defend European democracy*
11/12/2008
*Today’s announcement following the European Council meeting has confirmed to the Irish public that since the Lisbon referendum last summer the Irish Government has been conspiring in secret with the EU Commission and Europe’s political elite to subvert the sovereign democratic will of the Irish people rather than represent it. The subversion of the democratic will of the Irish people has resulted in Ireland becoming a post - democratic state and the EU entering a post-democratic era. *
*All Europeans need to open their eyes and see very clearly that today coercion, not democracy is at the heart of the EU project. For daring to vote against the direction and scope of the European project as demanded by the Lisbon Treaty, the Irish people will, over the coming months be subject to a massive campaign of threats and fear by anti-democratic forces spearheaded by our own government and the EU elite, in an attempt to force us into submission.*
*During the dark ages Irish monks kept European civilisation and learning safe and during World War II we helped keep democracy alive the last time it was threatened in Europe. In the coming months it will be the turn of the Irish people to shoulder this burden alone so that democracy can be kept alive long enough for the EU project to be rescued. This is a burden the Irish people are ready for and accept willingly on behalf of the peoples of Europe. *
END
Information:
*Frank Keoghan – 00353 87 230 8330 Brussels*
*Kevin McCorry – 00353 86 315 0301 Brussels*
*Patricia McKenna - 00353 87 242 7049 or 01 8300818 Dublin*
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The Irish Government has betrayed its people
And what do they deliver as concessions to the Irish voters? Not one single word to be changed in the treaty that was also rejected by the French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005 when it went under the name of "Constitution".
Not one word or legal obligation will be changed. The same content will simply be put in a new envelope, just as Valery Giscard d'Estaing said about the change from the Constitution to the Lisbon Treaty. But this time, not even the headline or the wording will be changed.
It is legally doubtful if it is possible to repeat a binding referendum on the same text in the same parliamentary period.
Then, they will have the promise of a commissioner from each member state. Fine. But the Irish commissioner will be picked by a majority of prime ministers and presidents in the EU. The Irish government can come up with "suggestions", but other member states decide.
It would indeed be a concession if they were to change the treaty and allow every member state to elect its own commissioner, and it would be democratic progress if we could elect our commissioner in direct elections together with the elections to the European Parliament.
The Irish government has simply given in and will not even insist on the right of Ireland to nominate its own commissioner.
Declan Ganley is president of Libertas and Jens-Peter Bonde is president of the EU Democrats and a member of the European Parliament from 1979-2008
