WOMEN SAY NO:THE LISBON Treaty will make a bad economic situation worse, according to a group of women councillors and community leaders campaigning against the treaty.
Therese Caherty, spokeswoman for the Women Say No to Lisbon – Again group, said yesterday that the treaty placed the interests of the market, not people, at the heart of the European project.
“Why else would employers’ lobby Ibec welcome Lisbon’s article 14 which, it says, provided ‘the legal basis for the increased liberalisation of services of general economic interest’ – in other words, education, transport, energy and the environment?” she asked.
She said Lisbon offered nothing on equality or equal pay and that the Charter of Fundamental Rights ignored human rights for women in various areas, including the right to childcare, reproductive and sexual rights, divorce, housing or the right to be free from men’s violence.
The group said that the EU spent far more on weapons than on combating the effects of climate change and the treaty contained no commitment in this area.
The Women Say No to Lisbon statement is signed by 41 women, including Ms Caherty of the Feminist Open Forum, Ailbhe Smyth of People Before Profit, singer Éilish Moore, Maura Harrington of the Shell to Sea campaign, former Green Party politicians Bronwen Maher and Patricia McKenna, and Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin.
The group’s claims have been rejected by the Women of Europe group.
Its co-founder Michelle O’Donnell Keating said the Charter of Fundamental Rights did not entitle women to rights such as divorce or childcare because the EU had no control over these areas.
“The charter protects the improvements achieved to date in the quality of life for Irish women, the elderly and disabled, by clearly outlining our right to freedom and justice and to be treated equally and with dignity,” Ms O’Donnell Keating said.
“A Yes vote to Lisbon will make these principles binding on the union’s institutions and on the member states when they are implementing EU law.”