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2 May 20001
Nice Treaty ``not about enlargement''
Nice Treaty Dáil debate - Ó Caoláin calls for NO vote
Key quotes from speech
Chancellor Shroder of Germany has let another cat out of the bag with his proposal, revealed this week, to turn the EU Commission into a fully fledged central EU Government. The Chancellor clearly believes that Nice is in the bag and already he and his colleagues are preparing for the next step. I hope the Irish electorate will give him second thoughts.
The front benches of government, Labour and Fine Gael show a united front in support of Nice and the back benches, as usual, echo with the sound of silence. In fact I would strongly advise the Minister for Agriculture to ensure that all his Fianna Fáil colleagues from rural constituencies remain in Dublin for the next month as the movement of so many sheep around the country poses a real danger.
The parties of the so-called Opposition think they have smelt blood in their pursuit of the government on the proposed National Sports Stadium. But there is not a murmur from them about increased State spending on weapons in order to keep up with the boys in NATO. Whatever you think about the Bertie Bowl it would be a venue for healthy pursuits.
The German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was in Dublin on Monday and used a scare tactic to try to influence the outcome of the Irish referendum. He stated that a NO to Nice would mean NO to enlargement. This is patently false as the changes proposed in Nice will happen regardless of whether any new State joins.
The Nice Treaty provisions for a two-class EU create a further potential division between the two sides of the Border. Will we find one side of the Border in the First Rank of states and the other side of the Border in the Second Rank? The Treaty of Nice creates that very real prospect.
FULL TEXT FOLLOWS
Nice Treaty ``not about enlargement''
Vote NO to a two-tier EU
Behind the question which will appear on the ballot paper in the Nice referendum is another question which the electorate of this State have never been asked explicitly by any government and which is not asked in this Bill. But it is the real question. The Taoiseach did not address it when I put it to him here on 7 March. The Question is the one put by the President of the EU Commission Romano Prodi to the EU Parliament on 13 February. Prodi asked:
``Are we all clear that we want to build something that can aspire to be a world power? In other words not just a trading bloc but a political entity?''
My answer and that of Sinn Fein is `No' and that is why we are calling on people to vote `No' in the referendum. We favour and actively promote fraternity and co-operation between nations across the continent of Europe. We oppose the creation of a new superpower, an EU Superstate with its own army dominated by the largest countries. Rival regimes aspiring to be world powers have caused untold misery, including two world wars, countless smaller wars and the ongoing economic exploitation of the poorer nations of the world and the majority of the human race. Has the lesson not been learned or do we wish to repeat the exercise on an even larger scale this century?
Since the Single European Act in 1987 the clear direction of EU development has been towards the creation of a giant state. The development has been slow ? too slow for some of the more gung-ho Euro-federalists ? but it has been inexorable. More and more democratic control has been taken away from us in relation to both domestic and international affairs. The EU Commission and the EU Council of Ministers have become more powerful. The Nice Treaty increases that power and removes yet more democratic control from the hands of elected representatives in this Dáil.
Chancellor Shroder of Germany has let another cat out of the bag with his proposal, revealed this week, to turn the EU Commission into a fully fledged central EU Government with the Parliament and the Council of Ministers becoming a bi-cameral legislature having full budgetary and legislative powers. The Chancellor clearly believes that Nice is in the bag and already he and his colleagues are preparing for the next step. I hope the Irish electorate will give him second thoughts.
The end of 2002 has been set as the target date for ratification of the Nice Treaty by member states. Yet the government is rushing headlong into a referendum on 7 June. There is absolutely no necessity to hold this referendum before the autumn of this year at the earliest.
It is disgraceful that the referendum is being railroaded in this way. Why is this being done? I believe that as the only EU government, so far, which has had to put the Treaty of Nice to its electorate, this government wants to `deliver' for its partner governments as quickly and decisively as possible. It holds itself up as the model government in the model economy to which all candidates for EU membership aspire. Our government hopes that getting this Treaty passed quickly here will show the others what good boys and girls we are. What the aspiring members do not see, of course, is the dark side of our economy and our two-tier, greed-driven society.
This government's approach to the referendum shows contempt for the electorate - the same contempt shown when Fianna Fáil's pre-election promise of a referendum on joining NATO's so-called Partnership for Peace was binned by the Taoiseach. With Fine Gael and the PDs they trooped through the lobbies here to join the NATO club. People were outraged at that U-turn and the government was damaged far more than they care to admit. They may well have taken the people for granted once too often.
The Nice Treaty is being presented by its supporters as the Treaty of Enlargement. It is no such thing. In reality this Treaty is about changing very significantly the structure of the existing 15-member European Union. By introducing Qualified Majority Voting in a whole range of new areas, 30 in all, it moves away from the right of veto of individual states and away from the requirement for unanimity based on consensus. The automatic right of each state to nominate a Commissioner is also going. Voting weight on the Council of Ministers will favour the larger states and our strength will be decreased. These changes will come in from 1 January 2005 regardless of whether there are any new EU members then.
In this Treaty `Enhanced Co-Operation' is the euphemism for the development of First-Class and Second-Class membership of the EU. A core group of states will be able to advance ahead of the rest, using the EU institutions to further their perceived common interests, including common foreign and security policy. This is a fundamental shift away from the idea of the EU as a partnership of equals with no state having less power or influence because of its size, and all proceeding together on the basis of agreement.
This fundamental shift prompted Deputy Quinn here in the Dáil on 13 December last to describe Nice as ``a disaster'' and an ``appalling setback''. Deputy Quinn said ``not only will Ireland's interests be damaged, but those of every small State because the concession made by the Taoiseach and others, which he could have blocked, means that he has irreparably damaged the role and function of the Commission. . . Therefore, he has damaged the interest of every other country in the European Union, big and small.''
Yet in his speech here on 3 April Deputy Quinn supported the Treaty and castigated those, including Anthony Coughlan, who have quite properly highlighted the Labour Party leader's previous remarks. Deputy Quinn accused Anthony Coughlan of trying to portray him, Deputy Quinn, as anti-European. What embarrasses Deputy Quinn is that his own remarks show Deputy Quinn to have been not anti-European but anti-Nice, at least up to 13 December, a position which he has now changed.
Deputy Quinn's colleague, Deputy Prionsias De Rossa, has signed up to a statement with 51 of his fellow Social Democrats in the EU Parliament which argues that Nice did not go far enough and calls for the EU to take up ``an aggressive global stance, with economic and monetary power being buttressed by equally powerful diplomacy and a worldwide position supported by a military capacity''.
I ask the question, is that compatible with Labour Party policy?
Almost 39% of the electorate voted against the Amsterdam Treaty. Clearly such a large percentage was drawn from the support bases of all the parties. What representation are those people being given here today? Limited indeed but I am proud to give it nonetheless. The front benches of government, Labour and Fine Gael show a united front in support of Nice and the back benches, as usual, echo with the sound of silence. In fact I would strongly advise the Minister for Agriculture to ensure that all his Fianna Fáil colleagues from rural constituencies remain in Dublin for the next month as the movement of so many sheep around the country poses a real danger. The Fine Gael and Labour Agriculture spokespersons might take similar precautions.
The government's U-turn on NATO's Partnership for Peace was followed by its commitment of troops to the Rapid Reaction Force, the core of an EU Army. We have to thank President Prodi again for his candour when he said that if we do not want to call it a European army we don't have to ? we can call it Margaret or Mary Anne but that it is the first such joint effort, as distinct from bi-lateral effort, at European level.
The Nice Treaty further develops the common foreign, security and defence policies of the EU. It further erodes Irish neutrality and independent foreign policy. Support for the EU armaments industry is explicitly written into the Treaty. Already, as a result of involvement in the Rapid Reaction Force and the PfP this State's defence spending has increased significantly.
The parties of the so-called Opposition think they have smelt blood in their pursuit of the government on the proposed National Sports Stadium. But there is not a murmur from them about increased State spending on weapons in order to keep up with the boys in NATO. Whatever you think about the Bertie Bowl it would be a venue for healthy pursuits.
Very little reference has been made to the effects of EU development on partition. In the 1960s Seán Lemass promised that EU membership would make partition irrelevant. His successors turned their backs on the Six Counties and towards EU membership which, under their stewardship in the 70s and 80s, was manipulated to benefit the better off, particularly the rancher farmers.
The creation of a single currency has led to the ludicrous situation where we have increasing All-Ireland co-operation on many levels under the Good Friday Agreement but a fiscally more divided island. The Nice Treaty provisions for a two-class EU create a further potential division between the two sides of the Border. Will we find one side of the Border in the First Rank of states and the other side of the Border in the Second Rank? The Treaty of Nice creates that very real prospect. And what say do people in the Six Counties have in this process? They are still under the jurisdiction of a State with no constitution and where the people have never been consulted on any of the major developments of the EU which people in the 26 Counties have voted on several occasions over the past 14 years.
The German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was in Dublin on Monday and used a scare tactic to try to influence the outcome of the Irish referendum. He stated that a NO to Nice would mean NO to enlargement. This is patently false as the changes proposed in Nice will happen regardless of whether any new State joins. The Treaty of Nice is not about enlargement. It is about further centralising the EU, placing greater power in the hands of the larger states and allowing them to create a two-tier EU. A rejection of this Treaty by the electorate here would be welcomed by people throughout the EU and in the applicant states. By rejecting this Treaty we can actually help to secure a better deal for applicant countries.
I emphasise again this is not about EU enlargement. We who oppose the Treaty of Nice are not opposed to new member states joining the EU. That is a decision for the people of those states and for the existing members.
The Treaty of Nice should not be incorporated in the Constitution and I urge its outright rejection by the electorate.
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