Lisbon Treaty Debate

This is going to be somewhat difficult for me considering my very basic knowledge of the European Union, but here it goes.

A little over a month ago a boy ran to the front of the lecture hall I was sitting in (before the lecture had started) and announced a Literary and Debate Society meeting that night in said lecture hall, Kirwan Theater. The debate was to be on Gay Adoption. Having a fair amount of homosexual and bisexual friends that I care very deeply about, I was extremely interested in seeing the Irish perspective of the issue.

Ever since that day I have been to every NUI Galway Literary and Debate Society meeting on Thursday nights at 7pm. The Irish have an amazing gift for rhetoric and the topics are usually issues I want to know more about. Whether or not gathering information from a debate society is… well… debatable, I still go.

Tonight’s motion was to Vote Yes on the Lisbon Treaty. To define the Lisbon Treaty in this simple blog would be impossible, never mind the fact the Treaty itself is extremely complicated, partly due to the fact that it is a derivative of past treaties that are also complicated in their own rights. I highly recommend that you, dear reader, look into it yourself. Big changes are possibly on the horizon for Europe and it WILL affect the US.

Each side of the panel had very notable speakers. Feel free to skip this part if you don’t really care, but I’m still going to write it down because I’d like to remember in the future.

PRO

Proinsias DeRossa, MEP (MEP = member of European Parliament; former minister of Social Welfare, and former President of the Labour Party)

Prof. Helen Wallace (Prof. at London School of Economics, and advisor to European Commission)

Brendan Kiely (Director of Irish Alliance for Europe)

CON

Shannonbrooke Murphy (Holds LLM in Human Rights from NUIG, is the Director of Policy for Sinn Fein, member of Sinn Fein Ard Chomhairle)

Declan Ganley (Chairman of Libertas)

*Feel free to look up the different political parties mentioned. They’re quite interesting. Sinn Fein and Labour have very deep roots in Irish politics. Libertas is relatively new but still holds weight.

The following is purely information I have gathered from the debate. Understand that this could be flawed. I do plan on reading up on the issue more, but I want to write this blog before I lose my steam. Also, for most of the debate I tried to make a decision based upon what would be in the best interest of Ireland. It was difficult to look at the “big picture” of the treaty considering it involves so many different countries with different interests and cultures, to say the least.

The panel for the Lisbon Treaty, in my opinion, did not say much. After three hours of debate I still did not understand why this treaty would be beneficial to the Irish people.

What I do understand is the treaty intends to make a European Community. Part of this means it will put in motion an election for a president who will be a representative of 27 different states. Henry Kissinger once asked when he needed to speak to someone in charge of the EU, who he should call. A president would possible remedy this, but is that what the EU needs?

This reminds me of another community of different states. Oh right, my home country, the United States! But that’s a very vain perspective on my part. North America’s unification of the 50 states is extremely different from the unification of 27 different countries! Countries that have different languages, cultures, histories and interests! A collective European Community is a very pretty idea, and I hate to be a pessimist, but who’s going to get the short end of the stick?

The treaty is also supposed to reform voting procedures. This is due in part to the recent accession of ten other states into the EU in 2004. The growing EU family needs to make room for its new members. The panel for the motion tried their best to calm the fear of so many Irish people. That fear being whether or not Ireland will lose her political say so in the Union. She’s a small country, but she wants to still be heard loud and clear.

After writing all of that I’m realizing which side I am leaning towards more and more.

The opposition was passionately against the treaty. Most of their arguments were, however, out of fear. That is what makes me question their argument.

Issues concerning the militarization of the EU were called into question. If the treaty is passed it will require that each of its members meet certain military standards in case of possible conflicts in the future. This is significant to Ireland because she has often preferred the position of neutrality. Ireland was controversially neutral during WWII. Also, any country that contributes her soldiers to a larger collective military for the EU will also be partially responsible for any actions of this military. The Irish do not want to be associated with any possible “mistakes” the EU army could make in the future. This by far was the greatest argument against the treaty.

The majority of the treaty is made up of treaties proposed in the past. A significant amount of these past treaties were greatly opposed. Why would Ireland be in favor of something that has foundations of what she previously was against?

The Lisbon Treaty would take away Ireland’s veto power. It also surrenders a huge amount of power to the EU concerning Irish legislation including, commercial policy, monetary policy, foreign policy, defence policy, education, youth, health, industry, culture, tourism, research, technology, energy, transport, environment, agriculture, fisheries, discrimination, some areas of taxation, data protection, employment, customs, sport, immigration, security and justice, media, just to name a few. Many feel much of the EU’s power is democratically unaccountable and persuaded by big corporations and special interest groups. I know, “welcome to politics”, BUT the big question is, does this have to be Ireland’s future?

Folks, I’m running out of steam. It’s late and I’m hungry after all this thinking. I’d just like to add that this was by far the most heated debate I have ever attended and that is largely due to the significant amount of senior Irish citizens in the theater. Old Irish people are fiery! There was so much name calling, mud slinging and raised voices! When it comes to politics, old Irish men got game! This was also the only time the NUI Galway student body (at the event) was almost split fifty-fifty. In the end, the majority voted against the motion, but that’s seriously because of the significant amount of senior opposition. I didn’t count any senior citizens who were for the motion.

Gonna research more later. Gotta eat something and then talk to my love on SKYPE!