Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-24-Speech-2-030"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080624.3.2-030"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, first of all I would like to thank the Slovenian President-in-Office, all his ministers and Slovenia’s Permanent Representation and officials for an impressive performance in command of their briefs.
Coming from a small Member State, I have a special understanding of how stretched official resources can be during a very pressured six months. I also have a slightly prejudiced view that small Member States make far better Presidents than large Member States – such is our concentration on the job.
The signal from Ireland has to be taken seriously. We need to analyse very carefully exactly what it was the Irish were saying ‘no’ to. Was it ‘no’ to a legal text which, by its nature, was hard to grasp and intimidating even for our politicians, and which we on the ‘yes’ side obviously failed to communicate adequately?
Perhaps it was also a ‘no’ stemming from a subliminal fear of the direction in which Europe is going, from a vague sense of ‘too far, too fast’ and from a need for consolidation.
The voters said ‘no’ to too much interference in their lives from Brussels, and ‘no’ to an Irish Government that has done little to enhance the reputation of the profession of politics. Theirs was also a ‘no’ to oil prices, to food prices and to the WTO. Sugar beet farmers said ‘no’, fishermen said ‘no’. It was a ‘no’ arising from misplaced concerns about neutrality, militarisation, abortion, euthanasia, cloning, taxation and workers’ rights – misplaced, that is, in the context of the Lisbon Treaty text.
If successive Irish governments over the last 35 years have cynically sold the benefits of European membership purely in monetary terms, with no reference to the philosophy and purpose behind this great project – that is the peace, stability and prosperity it has brought to Europe – and if they have blamed Europe for any problems and bad news, while claiming credit for all successes and progress, is it any wonder that a majority of those who voted rejected a poorly-understood document, aided and abetted by a range of extreme Eurosceptic cuckoos from other Member States who used the Irish as proxy voters for their own cause?
Political responsibility for the way forward now rests with the Irish Government and its Taoiseach, Brian Cowen. The Treaty cannot come into force without unanimity. Other governments, if they so wish, should have their say on the Lisbon Treaty. Just as we demand respect for the Irish vote, so must we respect the right of other Member States to ratify the Lisbon Treaty or not, as the case may be.
Seven Member States ratified the Constitutional Treaty after the French and Dutch votes. Parliamentary ratification is no less democratic than referenda."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples