The European Commission was today likened to a Communist-style dictatorship by businessman Ulick McEvaddy.
The outspoken opponent of the Lisbon Treaty called for a new blueprint for the future of the European Union to be condensed into a slim 20-page document.
Speaking at the Humbert summer school in Ballina, Co Mayo, Mr McEvaddy said Eurocrats “deliberately made the controversial charter unintelligible drivel so us peasants would not be able to understand it”.
He likened the European Commission to a Soviet-era politburo which attempted to enforce its rule over smaller states.
“The orders come from Brussels rather than Moscow now. This is the kind of dictatorship we are talking about.”
He added: “The EU lacks the KGB, thankfully.”
Mr McEvaddy, who is chief executive of Omega Air, said the Lisbon Treaty was dead and another document should not be put to voters in the EU “for a very long time”.
He said it should be only 20 pages long unlike the current 500-page document.
“The US constitution is a simple document, it covers 50 states, comes in a passport-size format and every US schoolchild is familiar with it,” he added.
The businessman said the EU administration model was wrong from the start and successive treaties have tried unsuccessfully to correct it.
“In Lisbon, they were trying to correct it in an unintelligible drivel,” he said.
Fine Gael senator Eugene Regan told the same session of the summer school that the Yes camp’s referendum campaign had no clear message and not enough money was spent.
Mr Regan also called for a simplification of how referendums are run in Ireland.
“We must begin to consider the entire approach we take to referendums and to European treaties in particular.
“We must begin to offer straightforward choices to the Irish people. We should identify the issues within the Constitution which people can decide on rather than facilitate a political debate that can so easily get debased by lies, deceit and misinformation.”
Former Department of Foreign Affairs secretary general Noel Dorr said the No result presented a problem for the EU as well as for Ireland.
“The EU failed to communicate its message to the citizens in member states, especially in Ireland,” Mr Dorr said.
PA