MILITARISATION:A NO vote in the Lisbon referendum would provide an opportunity to halt the drift to the greater militarisation of Europe, UCD lecturer in sociology and editor of Voteno.ie Kieran Allen claimed yesterday.
He said that rejecting the treaty would “open up a space where discussions can begin on why the EU is not mounting a Continent-wide public works programme, rather than a Continent-wide push to increase military spending”.
Mr Allen said that a key question in the referendum campaign was whether money should be spent on armaments rather than job-creation programmes.
He claimed that the treaty required Ireland to support greater spending on arms.
“For the first time, the European Defence Agency gets legal status in an EU treaty,” said Mr Allen. He said that the agency would play a major role in defining “operational requirements” of the armies of each country and would gain the power to “strengthen the base of the defence sector”.
Mr Allen said that a perfectly reasonable interpretation of the phrase “improve their military capabilities” was that countries would be obliged to increase spending on the military.
He accused the Yes side of not wishing to engage in an honest debate about whether or not this was desirable, particularly in a recession.
