Madam, - The French voters have done a good day's work for Europe. Maybe now the governing élites and their neo-liberal fellow travellers will realise that the people of Europe want a return to a "social Europe" where people are more important than the profits of globalised multinationals. - Yours, etc,
JOHN WILLIAMS,
Circular Road,
Kilkee,
Co Clare.
Madam, - The EU Constitution is dead. It will not make any difference if it is dragged around the states of the EU like some 21st-century Dracula. A stake has been driven through its heart by the French people, and the Dutch will do the same.
Apart from the EU élite, nobody wants this militarised, centralised and neo-liberal European empire. Vive la France. - Yours, etc,
ROGER COLE,
Chair,
Peace & Neutrality Alliance,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - As a passionate supporter of a united Europe and a non-enthusiast for the constitutional treaty, I am not sure exactly how to feel about the decision of the French people to reject the treaty. With the Dutch also likely to reject it in on Wednesday, Europe now faces a period of great uncertainty and reflection.
Nonetheless, there are a few certainties. The decision of the French to vote No will not make any of their problems go away. There will still be four million people unemployed. Jobs will continue to haemorrhage to more competitive economies and the free-market and political, cultural and economic globalisation that some of the treaty's opponents so fear shall continue unabated. France remains a weak economy with a large budget deficit sustaining a social system which it can no longer afford.
The unpopular government and President Chirac will be gone within two years in any case. France's influence in Europe and in the world at large will continue to wane. In fact, its decision to reject the treaty will probably make France weaker. Certainly, France will have to think twice before she appoints herself the spokesperson for all of Europe as she did during the Iraq crisis two years ago.
On the other hand, the need for a united Europe is as great as it has ever been. We live in a world in which markets, corporations and global trade flows are now larger than any European country can manage. Challenges such as terrorism, population flows, organised crime, climate change and the emerging energy crisis are greater than any European country can deal with alone.
The massive economic, military and political power of the United States and the rise of China and India threaten to sideline Europe's great democracies in the coming century. There can be no question that Europe's values, influence in the world, prosperity, freedoms and concept of society will not survive if Europeans do not stand together.
European integration is one of the phenomenal successes of the 20th century. It is our answer to centuries of war and the twin scourges of fascism and communism. The European Union brought an end to war and halted the march of Communism. More recently, it helped to stabilise and democratise central and eastern Europe. It has brought us political and economic security, free trade, the freedom to live, work, study and travel anywhere we like and has secured and enhanced our social, individual, labour and environmental rights.
In the past few years, we have witnessed economic and monetary union through the introduction of the euro and the enlargement of the European Union to Russian and Balkan frontiers. Perhaps now a few years' pause would be appropriate in order to allow people to understand what has happened and to truly appreciate the historical triumph they represent.
Then we can come back to the people with a more radical treaty actually worthy of being called a constitution. - Yours, etc,
Cllr LEO VARADKAR,
Rosehaven,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
Madam, - Congratulations to the French voters who took the trouble to find out what was in the EU Constitution and had the self-confidence to say "Non".
This constitution, if ratified, would have created an entirely new country, deceitfully called "Europe", which would never have a general election, with a so-called parliament without the power to introduce new laws or to appoint a government; a country with no mechanism for the people to replace the government with a different one of their choice.
This would be a country which had the neo-liberal economic policies of privatisation and globalisation in its constitution - policies which deepen inequality, making the rich much, much richer while disempowering those who work, or who would like to. These are policies which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have in common.
The French vote is a victory for popular sovereignty, for the people, over the political élites who pose as internationalists while they pursue the interests of transnational corporations. It is a historic turning point. - Yours, etc,
KEN KEABLE,
Kilclooney,
Kilmacthomas,
Co Waterford.