Madam, – It seems that many people here do not fully grasp the importance of putting our shoulders resolutely and wholeheartedly to the European wheel.
If we again reject the Lisbon Treaty it will mean that as a people we are simply of very little use to ourselves or to anyone else.
It will mean that Irish independence has been a failure, as we are simply not capable of sensibly and intelligently controlling our own destinies.
It will also mean that Irish “neutrality” is simply opting out of the real world into some sort of cuckooworld in which there is very little future for any of us.
America does not want us as a 51st state, so what do we propose to do if we are isolated, as we will be if there is another No vote on October 2nd? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – If the Government and others want a Yes result on Lisbon, might I suggest they revive an old and well-loved Irish slogan with a history of success: Lisbon is good for you! – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Fr Edmond Grace (Opinion, September 3rd) urges us to trust and hope the EU will allow Ireland’s pro-life laws to stand if the Lisbon Treaty is passed. I submit that the right-to-life of pre-born children is far too important a matter to be left to hope. That’s why the Irish people voted to approve a pro-life amendment in 1983: because we wanted to ensure that the law, not merely trust in a political system, protected the child in the womb.
The protocol attached to the Maastricht Treaty may have served us well in this regard until now, but it would be extremely foolish to believe that we can rely on that protocol if the Lisbon Treaty is passed. That’s because Articles 1 and 9 of the treaty create a new form of European Union and make us all citizens of that EU super-state. Article 6 of the treaty then makes the Charter of Rights attached to the treaty legally binding for all citizens, across all EU members-states, for the first time.
So Lisbon would be an utterly new departure – and the so-called guarantees issued by the EU Council in order to get Lisbon passed are not legally binding since they are not part of EU law; something recognised by the Referendum Commission.
In relation to human rights then, only the charter is binding, and Declaration 17 on primacy in the Lisbon Treaty clearly states that “the treaties and the law adopted by the EU on the basis of the treaties have primacy over the law of member-states”. This powerful combination means that the EU court, will have the ability to overrule our Constitution, and the wishes of the Irish people, in relation to our abortion laws.
Legal experts agree that the Charter gives the European Court of Justice enormous rights. Leading constitutional barrister Gerald Hogan remarked last year that, post-Lisbon, our Supreme Court would be “eclipsed” by the Charter of Rights attached to the treaty. And Justice Fidelma Macken, an Irish member of the European Court of Justice, said it would be “foolish” to argue that the Charter will not affect national laws.
In describing an Irish No vote as reducing the sovereign Irish people to “sulky outsiders” Fr Grace is confusing the EU elite with the people of the EU member-states, who have been denied a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but who, opinion polls tell us, would vote No.
Finally, Pope Benedict XVI, speaking to the diplomatic corps in Vienna in September 2007, said in relation to the Lisbon Treaty that a united Europe “will be a good place to live for everyone only if it is built on a solid cultural and moral foundation of common values drawn from our history and our traditions, and if it does not deny its Christian roots”. The word “only” is key to that sentence and has been omitted by more dishonest reportage of the Pope’s comments. Whether one agrees with that stance or not, it is abundantly clear that the EU has, in fact, turned its back on its Christian roots. – Yours, etc,