The Workers’ Party have said that if the European Union is to be democratic then it must accept that the people of the EU have the right to a say on its political, economic and social direction.

Cork Workers’ Party chairman Ted Tynan said that there was a very serious democratic deficit at the heart of the European Union and that major changes in the union’s legal and political structures such as those envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty should be discussed and participated in by the whole people of the European Union rather than being handed down in a patronising and undemocratic “we know best” manner.

“We are constantly being lectured that we must be ‘good Europeans’ but surely being a good European must also mean having a real say in how Europe is run.  The European Commission and governments cannot expect the people of Europe to merely take their word that the Lisbon Treaty is good for them.  People should  have the right to decide what type of European Union they want and not simply accept the Lisbon Treaty as if it were a spoon of cod liver oil being administered to a defiant child”, said Mr. Tynan.

He said that the Lisbon Treaty was being handed down from on high as if were written on tablets of stone. “Perhaps if  the EU commission stopped talking down to the people and listened to their needs they would learn something”, said Mr. Tynan who added that no referendum should be run on the basis of rumour and threats which had been the hallmark of all recent EU treaties.  “Information is what people want, not innuendo or intimidation”, declared Ted Tynan.