OPINION: There are very strong national and international reasons why we should vote Yes to Lisbon
THE RECENT publication by the Government of a well-written and comprehensive White Paper explaining in simple language the content of the Lisbon Treaty is an important development for the future of the European Union. The paper explains the nature of the legal guarantees the Government negotiated to allay fears that were raised during the last Lisbon Treaty referendum campaign.
The new referendum, to be held on October 2nd, will allow the electorate to look again at its decision of June 2008. Some may argue that Irish voters should not be asked to look again at a decision they already made in a referendum.
But every one of us looks again at decisions we have made in the past and, frequently with the benefit of greater knowledge and reflection, we decide to make a different decision. If this is all right for us as individuals, surely it is alright for us as electorates.
For me, one of the most significant statements in the White Paper was that “as a small state, Ireland values a rule-based system of international relations”. It also said that Ireland’s full participation in the EU is a means of “maximising our real sovereignty”.
These two statements go to the heart of the issue. They explain why more and more countries, especially smaller ones, want to join the EU. They also explain why, with an enlarged membership of 27 or more states, the union needs the reforms of the Lisbon Treaty to make it effective.
In the 21st century world, no nation is an island. No matter how big it is, a modern nation is buffeted by global storms. Global financial collapses, global spread of diseases, global climate impacts and global criminal conspiracies are too big for even the biggest countries to handle on their own. Even a country as big as the United States needs “a rule-based system of international relations”, in the concise words of the Irish White Paper.
But how are these international rules to be made? The EU provides the only instrument in the entire world whereby international rules can be negotiated and agreed democratically, as well as diplomatically. The EU is the only multi-state institution in the world that has a directly and democratically elected parliament, working alongside the ministers and the diplomats, who in all other international organisations are the only ones making the rules. The EU is the world’s only multinational democracy.
If the Irish people, along with the other 26 EU member states, ratify the treaty they will be taking a major step forward for European democracy. They will expand the number of subjects on which their democratically elected MEPs will be making decisions and they will create an entirely new mechanism to allow each of the 27 national parliaments to look at proposed EU legislation before it even goes to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers for debate.
The treaty will thus open up the process of EU law-making to a level of potential public participation and scrutiny far beyond that applying to law-making in sovereign member states. Under the treaty, Ireland will maximise its real sovereignty because, through the EU, it will gain leverage over a range of global issues on which it would have much less influence as a small country acting on its own.
It is especially important that Europe be able to act in a united way in the 21st century. In 1900 the countries of the present European Union produced about 40 per cent of the world’s wealth and had a quarter of the world’s population. At the latest count, those countries have only 7 per cent of the world’s population and produce 30 per cent of the world’s wealth and, if current trends continue, Europe’s weight in the world will be proportionately even less by 2050.
Therefore, if the countries of the EU, including Ireland, are to influence the rest of the world on the things that are important to them, we will be much more likely to succeed if we act together as a union, than if we pursue 27 different national policies. With its reduced global weight, Europe cannot afford the luxury of too much division.
The treaty gives the EU the means of being united on global issues. It does so by creating new institutions such as the president of the European Council, the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and a new external action service to forge common positions that balance the interests of all members. Of course, big foreign policy decisions will still to be taken by unanimity, and unanimity among 27 countries is not inevitable. But the Lisbon Treaty will make it easier to achieve.
I was a member of the convention that drafted the Constitutional Treaty, which provides most of the content of the present Lisbon Treaty. The aspects of the Lisbon Treaty in which I was most involved were those that equip the EU to fight cross-border crimes such as trafficking in women and children, money laundering, trafficking in arms, counterfeiting and terrorism. These are crimes that usually have an inbuilt international character.
For example, there have been a number of appalling gun crimes in Ireland in recent weeks. One does not have to reflect very long on these crimes to see that they have a cross-border character. The guns used have been imported from another country.
The drugs, for which the crime has often been committed to pay, have also been imported from another country. And, frequently, the proceeds of the crime will be lodged or laundered in another country. The modern crime problem is too big for one country to overcome on its own. The old-fashioned ways of dealing with cross-border crimes through bilateral one-off case-by-case deals between police forces makes life too easy for fast-moving modern criminals. The Lisbon Treaty will put that right. It will allow for the freezing of terrorist assets, for the collection of evidence in other countries and for the protection of the rights of Irish people who may become victims of a crime while on holiday in another country.
Crime is only one example. The treaty will also help us to deal with energy shortages and cross-border health threats in ways that are not possible under the existing EU treaties.
There are thus very strong practical reasons for the Irish people to decide to vote Yes this time.
John Bruton is EU Ambassador to the United States