Madam, – Andrea Pappin (July 16th) shows remarkably poor timing in making the claim that the EU is disinterested in Ireland’s abortion laws.
Just last week a Swedish MP, Birgitta Ohlsson, launched a EU-wide campaign to use the Lisbon Treaty in an attempt to get the EU Commission to pressurise Ireland to introduce abortion. This blatantly undemocratic move comes in the wake of the Catania, Sandbaek, and Von Lancker reports passed by the EU parliament, which not only funded abortion but sought to establish it as an enforceable human right. In the parliament debates on these resolutions, Ireland was sharply criticised by MEPs for outlawing abortion.
Clearly, there is a considerable and vocal cohort in other EU member-states who are far from being disinterested in our laws – and in our right to decide on important social issues.
Cóir’s position is that such parties – or any citizen of any EU state – will be free to use the Charter of Rights which would be made binding by the Lisbon Treaty to challenge Ireland’s pro-life laws in the European Court of Justice. Since the court has never had this legally-binding Charter before, they have simply not had the right to decide our social laws. All that will change utterly if we pass the Lisbon Treaty.
Those are the facts that Cóir will be explaining to as many voters as possible before October 2nd. We will also explain to them something Niall Blaney ( July 16th) does not seem to understand. Any protocol on abortion is legally binding but may be challenged successfully in the future in the EU courts using the Charter of Rights attached to the Lisbon Treaty.
Until such a time as this proposed protocol is ratified however, the so-called guarantees on Lisbon are not legally binding in EU law and, as such, are little more than political promises. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Contrary to what many of your letter writers would like to believe there is indeed a threat to Irish abortion laws from the Lisbon treaty.
The threat is that the EU is pushing to have abortion declared a universal human right (most recently at the UN Geneva meeting this week).
If abortion is upheld as a universal human right under the EU fundamental Charter of Human Rights, which will be legally binding if Lisbon is passed, then Ireland’s laws against abortion will fall.
No EU state will be allowed to deny a European citizen a so-called “universal human right” as determined by the European court of Justice regardless of local law. As for the legal guarantees made by politicians they can and will be overturned by a court of law if they are found to be in breach of the fundamental charter much the same way as Irish laws may be legally binding until found to be repugnant to our constitution. – Yours, etc,