More Idiot's Guide To The Lisbon Treaty

Since posting our original Guide to the Lisbon Treaty the debate has somewhat heated up. The 'Yes' campaign has finally started, and the referendum is finally getting daily national media coverage.

Understandably a few more issues and questions have arisen which we didn't quite touch on in our initial 'Idiot's Guide'. So this post is something of an add-on to the original. It's not going to be as lengthy as the first one, as most of the issues were covered there, but should answer some of the outstanding questions.

As usual, a healthy skepticism is urged when reading this kind of thing. I'll reiterate what I said before the last one: I don't have a party affiliation, or an agenda. This research was conducted to try to make sense of all the crap floating around concerning this treaty. My opinion at this stage is that I'll be voting yes, but this is based solely on the facts turned up during my research (for which I've read everything I could get my hands on, listened to debates & speeches, attended meetings, and even read a lot of the actual treaty- which is as horribly dense as everyone says it is).

Righto. Click the 'read more' to get going.



Lets take this point by point.


Firstly, the main one, and the issue that is pissing me off the most.


Losing an EU Commissioner

One of the recurring arguments against the treaty is the fact that Ireland will lose an EU Commissioner. This one seems to be rolled out at every debate, with people such as Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald consistently describing it as 'Ireland losing power in Europe'.

This is utter crap, and here's why:

1. EVERYONE loses a commissioner, not just Ireland. There are only so many jobs to go round in the commission, and having more people sitting around the table than is necessary is counter-productive. So if Lisbon gets passed there will only be as many commissioners as there are jobs, with each country sitting out a few years in rotation. No one's getting the short straw.

2. (and this is the big one) Commissioners are not representatives of Ireland in Europe. The commission is the entity designed to protect the interests of the Union as a whole. When entering the post each commissioner must swear an oath that their actions will only be motivated by the interests of the Union, and all national concerns will be put aside.

So we could have a hundred Irish commissioners in there twenty-four hours a day and it still wouldn't matter a damn to Ireland.


'The Lisbon Treaty is Self-Amending'

What's meant by that in the first place? Basically that be signing off on Lisbon we'll never have to vote on things like this again, because it incorporates a mechanism for 'beaurocrats' to make changes in the future without all this silly voting malarkey.

Well, yes, it does cut through some red tape. Article 48 of the treaty allows for a speedy, simplified method of drawing up a future amended treaty. Obviously creating a document of this nature takes time (check out the document itself, it's fairly intense), so Lisbon attempts to make this process less painful. But... as the treaty is very careful of in all areas, any changes must always be "in accordance with member states' constitutional requirements". Which means there's no way they could just sneak in something dramatic and get away with it.

But more importantly- the changes in Article 48 are merely to the process of drawing up an amending treaty. There is no change to the fact that any amendment must be ratified in the proper fashion, ie: we'll still have to vote on it. First in the European Parliament, then on to individual states to be decided upon in either the National Parliaments, as is the case in most of Europe, or through a referendum, as is the case with Ireland. Everyone will still get their say on whether or not any of these future amendments are passed.


There will be a new 'President of Europe' (ala President of the USA)

This is a common mistake made by confusing the new post of 'High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy' with a 'President of Europe'. There will be no 'President of Europe'. The new post is largely administrative, and combines the existing posts of (deep breath) 'High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy' and 'European Commissioner for External Relations'.

The bearer of this post will have no formal powers, but rather work as a mouthpiece for the previously agreed upon foreign policies of the Union. This seems to be just another instance of making the whole thing less messy and cutting out some red tape. The new High-Representative will put a face on Europe for purposes of foreign policy, but that policy will still be decided upon in the same way it always has- through the Parliament, the Commission, and ultimately the individual member states.


Militarisation

Ok, so the neutrality thing is a buzz issue, but I think it's fairly clear to everyone at this stage that Ireland's neutrality is not affected by Lisbon. But what impact will the treaty have on the military, if any? Well, the truth is that if Lisbon is ratified, there will definitely be more militarisation.

Once you've picked yourself up off the floor we'll continue.

It is a desire of some that all armies within the Union be of reasonable standard, so that each countries armed forces are capable of operating effectively. Hence Lisbon obliges each country to increase it's military spending to achieve this level. There's talk of centralised spending (instead of all the individual countries putting in small equipment orders, Europe puts in one big one, hence cheaper), but that's not in the treaty- it'll be argued over another day.

This does not mean we'll build our army in to a major force. This does not mean we can be conscripted into the army (Irish or European). This does not mean military issues will have any more attention than they do now. What this means is that when we go off on peace-keeping missions (such as the one in which Irish troops are currently involved in Sudan) our army will be equipped to a certain standard, and one that is common throughout all of Europe.

~

These four seem to be the issues which keep cropping up, but of course there are bound to be others which we've yet to address- so you can probably expect another post on Lisbon before the day of the referendum. I hope everyone's still vaguely keeping up will all the madness.


If you haven't read our original Idiot's Guide you can check it out here.