I can only agree generally with the Minister: it is highly important for all our futures that we ratify this Treaty and thus ensure our continued full membership in the EU, which has been central to our prosperity and our place in the world, and will, I hope, continue to fulfil these vital, for us, functions. However, I have to mark my disappointment that other members of the government,not Minister Roche, it goes without saying, seem to ignore this centrality,and to wish to see us in the area of justice in the same boat as our nearest neighbour. I've even seen one of them quoted as saying he was determined not to see "Brussels" putting one over on us here. This, in my view, is a very dangerous game for us to be playing. We should be able to see that this line of argument ends up leaving the member state that indulges in it with progressively less influence in the EU; they even find that they can no longer persuade their young people to be interested enough in their membership to take up positions with the institutions, thus prejudsicing their whole effective future as full members. Besides, if this is the approach we're now going to take, how can we persuade our electorate that "Brussels" is good for us?
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I can only agree generally with the Minister: it is highly important for all our futures that we ratify this Treaty and thus ensure our continued full membership in the EU, which has been central to our prosperity and our place in the world, and will, I hope, continue to fulfil these vital, for us, functions. However, I have to mark my disappointment that other members of the government,not Minister Roche, it goes without saying, seem to ignore this centrality,and to wish to see us in the area of justice in the same boat as our nearest neighbour. I've even seen one of them quoted as saying he was determined not to see "Brussels" putting one over on us here. This, in my view, is a very dangerous game for us to be playing. We should be able to see that this line of argument ends up leaving the member state that indulges in it with progressively less influence in the EU; they even find that they can no longer persuade their young people to be interested enough in their membership to take up positions with the institutions, thus prejudsicing their whole effective future as full members. Besides, if this is the approach we're now going to take, how can we persuade our electorate that "Brussels" is good for us?
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