Platform:In considering the Lisbon Treaty, we should go back to first principles. To do this, we need to take a new look at the Laeken Declaration, the 2001 document that started off the whole process of drafting the constitutional treaty which has now morphed into the Lisbon Treaty, writes Feargal Quinn
I remember thinking at the time that the Laeken Declaration was like a breath of fresh air. I have always been a fan of Europe, but over the years had become depressed by the way the EU institutions failed to engage successfully with the peoples of the member states.
As the years went on, this process seemed to be becoming worse rather than better.
I was really delighted, therefore, when the Laeken Declaration firmly grasped this nettle by its roots. As the declaration put it:
"Within the Union, the European institutions must be brought closer to its citizens. Citizens undoubtedly support the Union's broad aims, but they do not always see a connection between those goals and the Union's everyday action.
"They want the European institutions to be less unwieldy and rigid and, above all, more efficient and open. Many also feel that the Union should involve itself more with their particular concerns, instead of intervening, in every detail, in matters by their nature better left to member states' and regions' elected representatives.
"This is even perceived by some as a threat to their identity. More importantly, however, they feel that deals are all too often cut out of their sight and they want better democratic scrutiny."
The declaration also spelled out an exciting role for the EU in the new globalised world:
"The role it has to play is that of a power resolutely doing battle against all violence, all terror and all fanaticism, but which also does not turn a blind eye to the world's heart-rending injustices. In short, a power wanting to change the course of world affairs in such a way as to benefit not just the rich countries but also the poorest, a power seeking to set globalisation within a moral framework, in other words to anchor it in solidarity and sustainable development."
This is indeed heady stuff, and it's perhaps a little strange for us to look back today and recognise it as the start of a long and tortuous process that has led us today to the consideration of a new reform treaty for the EU.
Does the result we have now got to consider, in the form of the Lisbon Treaty, live up to these aspirations that were set out so clearly in the Laeken Declaration? Or, along that road, have the lawyers and the bureaucrats taken over the process, so that instead of a new beginning we are presented with more of the same?
We can - and indeed we should - scrutinise the Lisbon Treaty from the point of view of Irish interests. We should ask ourselves very carefully whether the benefits to Ireland exceed the undoubted costs of going along with the treaty. We owe it to future generations to carry out that scrutiny, and to do it diligently.
But surely we have another responsibility, one we take on not as Irish but as Europeans. We are in the process of building a supra-national structure under which our children and our grandchildren will have to live. In this treaty, we are taking a decisive step to shape the Europe of the future.
So I believe we should ask: is this really the way we want to go? Does this treaty live up to the Laeken Declaration, or does it perhaps undermine the fine principles and aspirations on which the reform project was launched?
If we have any doubts about this, now is the time to voice them - when we still can affect the course of the future Europe. If we stay silent now, we are by our silence agreeing to one particular way forward and turning our back on any other.
This referendum will pose the Irish people some of the most fundamental questions that have ever been put to them. They should not be bullied or blackmailed into giving one particular answer or the other.
They are entitled to a reasoned debate and my hope is that they will get it.
Feargal Quinn is an Independent member of Seanad Éireann
