A vote in favour of the new EU treaty will strengthen EU militarisation under Nato and will weaken democracy within Europe, American political scientist Susan George has said.
Ms George, who was active in the campaign which secured the rejection of the EU constitution in France in 2005, has urged Irish voters to vote against the EU reform treaty next year. Ireland is currently the only member state planning to hold a referendum on the treaty agreed in Lisbon last month.
Speaking at a meeting of the Campaign Against the EU Constitution in Liberty Hall, Dublin, at the weekend, Ms George said the new treaty differed very little from the constitution rejected by both France and the Netherlands in 2005.
"What is now on the table, what Ireland will have a referendum about, is virtually the same as this supposedly defunct constitution . . . your own dear Bertie Ahern has said 90 per of the constitution is there."
Ireland's independence and neutrality was at risk from provisions of the treaty which strengthen Nato, she said. "The subservience to Nato is even worse in the treaty which obliges us to increase our military capabilities. Nato is not going to be a structure administered by Europe, it is run by the United States."
The power of the European Central Bank would be strengthened and taxes would be reduced, she said.
The treaty did nothing to strengthen the democratically-elected organ of the EU, the European Parliament, Ms George said.
"We oppose the treaty because of the lack of power for the parliament. There are a great many decisions that are the total provenance of the commission - that is not a democratic entity."
The EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson was "pushing very hard" to abolish obstacles to trade, which would in effect mean the abolition of individual states' environmental and consumer protection regulations, she said.
The No vote in the French referendum was presented internationally as a victory for the right, and it was true, Ms George said, that there had been a percentage of the voters who were motivated by right-wing concerns.
"However, in the final result only 17 to 18 per cent of the vote could be attributed to the extreme right. We had nothing to to with Jean-Marie Le Pen and we proved that in our campaign."
