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Will Ireland's voters bite hand that feeds them?

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Published Date: 13 June 2008
From Dustin the Turkey to political distrust, the Irish have found many reasons to vote No, writes Gerri Peev
THERE should never have been any question over Ireland's support for the new EU Treaty. Ireland is , after all, the nation that has soaked up £16bn in grants since it joined the EEC in 1973, embracing its continental cousins and eschewing Britain's c...



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  • Last Updated: 12 June 2008 10:15 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: European Union
 
1

Sierra Foothills Scot,

Diamond Springs 13/06/2008 04:25:00
Let's hope the Irish vote "no". Someone needs to stop this profoundly undemocratic, corrupt, power-mad, meddlesome organisation and force it to return to its original principles. It now looks like the Irish are the only ones who can do it.
2

Dr. James Wilkie,

Vienna 13/06/2008 08:14:30
I have lived with the issue of European integration for most of my professional life, and I am fully aware of its necessity, especially for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, where state borders are becoming increasingly irrelevant. My objection to the European Union, among all the other European organisations, is that it is away behind the times in its inexorable creep towards the status of a European state.

As a personal friend of Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, whose Paneuropa Union set the whole movement in motion in the 1920s, I am well acquainted with the background to and the reasons for integration, but I must look at the reality that the original European Idea(l) has now been overtaken by more recent events. The growth of a level of government at global level (UN, WTO etc.) has made organisation at European level at least partly redundant. How much EU legislation is simply implementing rules already promulgated by the likes of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, when the EU members are all UNECE members anyway? What is the point of the duplication?

Then again, a large part of the European "political architecture" that has been set up since the war has been created to deal with transitional situations that will sooner or later be at an end. The EC Coal and Steel Community has already been wound up, after killing Ravenscraig, but there are plenty of other candidates within the EU setup. The Trans-European Networks, a laudable enterprise, will hardly survive the completion of the cross-border infrastructure - at least not justifiably, but then we have experience of the persistence of political structures that have long since outlived their purpose, once they become power bases for individuals.

3

Dr. James Wilkie,

Vienna 13/06/2008 08:16:15
The European Union is not “Europe”, and will never at any time become Europe, despite the ambition of its leading politicians to become a global power. The Russians refuse to join, and without Russia there is no Europe; Bismarck recognised that a long time ago. I have no doubt that we are heading towards the creation of a genuinely European community from the Atlantic to the Urals based on economic cooperation and the values of the 47-member Council of Europe as well as the 57-member Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. That will still take some time, but the ongoing diplomatic negotiations on the creation of a Common European Economic Space and three other European “spaces”, with the inclusion of Russia, are obvious moves in that direction. In any event, in the light of developments to its east and south, the only way Russia can go is west.

The European Union has done a great deal of good – but good that could equally well have been done by an organisation founded on a much safer basis. When politicians insist on having the unfettered freedom to alter the statutes upon which their own exercise of power is based, when they deliberately exclude the people, whose servants they are, from the process of deciding upon such fundamental issues, then it is time to call a halt. This is the thin end of a very dangerous wedge, and if the Irish do not manage to curb such developments, then other means will have to be found.

4

eric,

13/06/2008 08:30:56
yawn
5

,

13/06/2008 11:09:54
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
6

,

13/06/2008 11:12:13
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
7

Alan B,

13/06/2008 12:51:48
"THERE should never have been any question over Ireland's support for the new EU Treaty."

Why? I think u confuse support for the EU with support for any treaty no matter how bad from the EU.
8

Isonomia,

Lenzie 13/06/2008 15:17:21
First the Romans tried, it then Napoleon tried it, then Hitler tried it, and now the idiots who support a European superstate are trying it, and it never will work because Europe doesn't exists, there is no European culture, not european people, no law, no religion, nothing that defines Europe, even the geographical area of Europe is a 19th racist division between "nice" people and the "nasty Russians".

Not any dictator nor any Brussels bureaucrat can make a state where none exists.

Thank god the Irish have seen sense at last.
9

Ben Macdui,

13/06/2008 22:04:43
10, Isonomia.
Russia west of the Urals is in Europe.
In all sports, Russia competes in the Europe area of that sport.
For example, at the Euro 2008 Football championships.
10

euro-dreamer,

borders 14/06/2008 01:07:17
Gordon Broon has just cancelled a family holiday in Ireland. Will he lose his deposit?
11

suzuky7502000,

Belgium 15/06/2008 12:47:25
Getting help is one thing.
Getting reward for saying YES is another thing:why should Ireland accept all stupid clauses in a treaty that would virtually cancel all benefits received during the past years.?
Europe offers scarcely littel future to its members-see around-
Experience and observation have talked.

 

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