Madam, - It is strange how often the term "EU citizens" is used nowadays by our politicians, by EU officials and, most of all, by those supposed to be best informed on EU matters.
The latest abuse of this term was by Minister of State for European Affairs Mr Dick Roche, in a letter to The Irish Times published last Saturday. Surely we should expect that those who speak with such authority on important EU matters to understand the implications of their own words.
We are not EU citizens, but citizens of EU member-states. To use the term "EU citizen" implies that the EU is a sovereign state. To be a sovereign state implies that it has its own constitution and laws, and the ability to pass and enforce new laws.
While the EU does have the power, nowadays, to pass and enforce new laws, it does not have the legal entitlements to precede the constitutional laws of its member-states. Since we are citizens of an EU member-state, Ireland, our own Constitution has precedence over any other, unless we vote otherwise in a referendum.
It is even more puzzling when the same informed politicians and official spokespersons on EU affairs who carelessly use the term "EU citizen" reassert with even more authority the very opposite of what it implies - that our national sovereignty has not been compromised by successive past EU treaties, and that it will not be superseded by the latest reform treaty.
It is no wonder that so many of our national powers and laws have passed "quietly" to the EU institutions while our national leaders seem none the wiser. - Yours, etc,
MARCELLA O'SHEA, Irishtown, Athlone, Co Westmeath.