Lisbon redux

05 January 2009

As it was foretold, so it came to pass. Euro-correspondent.com's prediction that Ireland would vote again on the Lisbon Treaty in late 2009 proved uncannily accurate, writes Stephen Gardner. But the declarations made at the December 11-12, 2008 European Summit about Ireland securing vital guarantees, and thus responding to the wishes of those who voted against the Treaty the first time round, were pure political theatre. In fact, when Ireland votes again, it will vote on exactly the same Lisbon Treaty that it rejected before. Not one single word will change. The only serious concession granted to Ireland is that, rather than the cull of European Commissioners foreseen by the Treaty, every EU country will now keep an appointee in Brussels. But the legal instrument allowing this will only be adopted at a later stage, once Lisbon is in place. On other issues, such as Irish neutrality, Taoiseach Brian Cowen supposedly heroically wrested concessions for his people. But these are smoke and mirrors. Particular suspicion hangs over the question of abortion, which Irish government surveys showed was a major concern for Lisbon naysayers. But objective evidence for this is scant, and the Lisbon Treaty would anyway not have touched on Irish law in this area. Surely it couldn't be that this issue was raised just so Cowen could secure a guarantee on it, as part of constructing the justification to vote on Lisbon again? Surely not. That would be a preposterous idea! A version of this article was previously published in Private Eye.

 

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