A 15-page treaty?

Along similar lines a 15-page treaty would fail to fully address in a comprehensive manner the issues of most concern to Irish citizens. Today's Irish Times quotes Martin Territt, Head of the European Commission Representation in Ireland as saying "Without the Lisbon Treaty, EU action will be hamstrung by heavier procedures and less clarity about what we can or cannot do. That means a less effective response on issues Irish and other EU citizens in general care about. Ironically, the Lisbon Treaty would also have addressed the fears about erosion of sovereignty. It would have delineated the competences of the EU versus those of member states and made the frequently talked about 'competence creep' less likely in the future. It would also have improved democracy and ensured more involvement of citizens in decision-making".

Who Guards the Guardians?

S Burns below makes a good point when he claims that 42% had no idea what they were rejecting when they voted no to Lisbon. 33% thought that a “Yes” meant conscription into a European army and abortion on demand!

Even the Taoiseach Brian Cowen admitted that he had never read the text (something he later retracted). This was compounded when Charlie McCreevy complained that the text was inane and he had no intention of reading it.

Yesterday in the Oireacthas subcommittee on the future of Ireland in the EU, Declan Ganley complained that the Lisbon Treaty was actually 10,000 words longer than the Constitutional Treaty. He suggested that the Treaty should be abandoned altogether and replaced with a 15 page text that anyone could read.

However, if the Treaty was only 15 pages, it would create an extremely powerful, unelected, European Court of Justice. They would have power to interpret the text freely and make rulings that would decide our fate. Perhaps then we would see mandatory conscription, abortion and the elitist undemocratic EU that the No campaign has warned us about…