Diametrically opposed views on the Nice Treaty, and disagreement on whether workers in applicant states want to join the EU, marked submissions to an Oireachtas committee yesterday.
Mr Anthony Coughlan, of The National Platform, a research and information group on European Affairs, urged a No vote in the forthcoming referendum, while Mr Peter Cassells, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, called on workers and their families to approve the treaty.
They made submissions to the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs, which will draw up a report before the referendum, expected on June 7th.
Mr Cassells said he had been in discussions with workers from applicant countries and they asked Ireland to support enlargement. Mr Coughlan disagreed and said half of those in Poland, Estonia and Malta, for instance, were against joining. In his submission, Mr Coughlan said The National Platform opposed the treaty. "The balance of power will be in favour of the larger states and they will dominate the EU if the treaty is ratified."
The simple accession process in the previous Amsterdam Treaty allowed five new applicant countries to join. The Nice Treaty allowed no one to join without major reforms, he said.
Enlargement of the EU would lead to first- and second-class states, he said. There was no doubt the EU would take over the military structures and there would generally be less democracy, he said.
"Nice is intended to deepen and centralise, not widen the EU. Nice will divide the EU into avant-garde and also-rans," Mr Coughlan told the committee.
"As responsible Europeans we must keep Europe together and that is why we must vote No." Mr Coughlan said if the treaty was ratified we would no longer be able to say no to anything decided in the EU. France and Germany had forced it on to the rest of the states. If Ireland voted against, the treaty would be renegotiated. "A two-tier, two-class Europe must be stopped and there should be a debate on what people want in Europe," he said.
Mr Cassells said the ICTU was affiliated to the European Trade Union Federation, which represented 35 million workers including those in applicant countries.
Through these centres he had been very much involved in discussions, particularly on enlargement. The ICTU was supporting the Nice Treaty.
He said they had discussions with workers from Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and other applicant countries and all were in favour of joining the EU.
"Workers in each of the applicant countries have asked us, through the federation, to support enlargement and say it is our moral imperative and we are asking workers and their families to support the referendum," he said.
He said the ICTU strongly supported the European social model. They believed it was important the Commission had the central role of initiative as that was what had benefited smaller countries.