Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-24-Speech-2-018"
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"en.20080624.3.2-018"2
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"Mr President, Slovenia has proudly and diligently carried the Presidency. A few days ago, at your summit, you decided to study why the Irish voted ‘no’ so, in response, I will repeat what I said last week.
Ireland has become increasingly uneasy at finding its democracy eroding and its values changed. Ireland has a history that makes it especially value democracy. Increasingly, though, it is finding that its decision-making power seems to be migrating to the Commission. However, when questioned about a particular decision, the Commission will defer to the national authorities. Nobody seems to be responsible.
That is an agreeable situation for nearly everyone but the citizen. The nation gets the regulation it wants, as well as the revenues, but ducks the responsibility. This is felt in day-to-day items such as the Waste Framework Directive and the Water Directive, with its water charges. It was also felt in the run-up to the referendum, where some voices coming from Europe told us that the outcome of our vote did not matter. Other voices threatened us with retribution and even expulsion from the EU if we did not get it right. Despite these threats – or possibly because of them – a large number of Irish people voted against this Treaty.
Concerning values, many still consider that their country – Ireland – is a Christian nation, despite recent decades of secularisation. They are uneasy at European voices calling for either a right to abortion or a right to euthanasia. It is only a year since this Parliament, the Council and the Commission, in the Advanced Therapy Directive, chose not to ban embryo-destructive cloning, commercialisation of the human body and animal human hybrids. Shortly before that, the Seventh Framework Directive allowed EU funding for embryo-destructive research. Only a year ago, on 5 July 2007, a conference was held in this Parliament to promote medically assisted dying and euthanasia in Europe. It was well attended by MEPs and large numbers of interest groups. As the conference progressed, it was clear that they eagerly anticipated the coming into force of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which they felt, with the right court cases, would open the door to euthanasia Europe-wide. None of this has gone unnoticed in Ireland.
Furthermore, those who wanted a ‘yes’ vote constantly reminded the Irish of how well they have done out of Europe, but this does not ring true to them, with the fishing industry of an island nation struggling to survive, a profitable sugar industry disappearing at the stroke of a Brussels pen and building workers living day to day, job to job. It is now clear that the large countries intend to force us to re-vote until we give a ‘yes’ to Lisbon. They have enlisted their willing allies from the political classes in Ireland – who were so out of touch with the people that they were in shock at the referendum outcome and angry at the voters. If you want the people of Ireland – or anywhere else for that matter – to embrace Europe, you will have to listen to them telling you about the Europe they want, and act on their concerns. Otherwise, they will vote ‘no’ again."@en1
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