Latest 19.06.2009
LISBON DECLARATIONS ARE JUST GIFT WRAPPING

'The promised EU declaration on Ireland's status in the Lisbon Treaty is merely a form of gift wrapping. 'Not a single word of the actual Treaty will be changed when it is put to a new vote of the Irish people.

Instead there will be a set of declarations which do not have the same legal status as the treaty itself. All that has happened is that the politicians who claimed that the EU could NOT work with a commissioner for every country have now been discredited.

Contrary to their arguments then, the EU functioned for another year without the Lisbon Treaty, even though we were told that decision making in the EU would descend into chaos if that treaty was not passed.

The declarations that the Irish political establishment have achieved only exposes their spurious liberal pretensions. During the last referendum, they implied that the Yes side was modern and progressive. But they have rushed in to shore up the anti-abortion constituency in Ireland in a desperate attempt to get the Yes vote through. These same politicians would be better off legislating for the rights of Irish women who are suicidal to have abortion in their own country as the people have already voted for this.

No progress what so ever has been made on workers rights. The devastating judgements of Laval and Viking remain in place and workers rights remain subordinated to the so called right to the free movement of capital.

The Lisbon Treaty was formulated in a different era when de-regulation and worship of free markets was all the rage. The Treaty outlaws restrictions on the movement of capital; it limits state spending, it commits the ECB to a price stability policy rather than a full employment policy.

For all those reasons it needs to be resoundingly rejected again.