Addressing a Workers’ Party public meeting in Liberty Hall, Dublin tonight (Monday)  Padraig Mannion, campaign director for the Workers’ Party,  said that less than One Percent of the EU’s population had seen the text of the Lisbon Treaty and a much smaller number had the opportunity to read the treaty, which could not be read alone without reference to the previous treaties.

Mr. Mannion called on everybody on the broad left, including all those thousands of genuine voters who supported Labour or the Green Party in the recent general election, to firmly reject the Lisbon Treaty.

“We all know” said Mr Mannion “that one should not judge a book by its cover. But it is entirely legitimate to judge a book by its author, especially when that author has a long track record. This book has been co-authored, by the 27 prime ministers of the EU countries. And we know these people. We know their track record. These 27 leaders are all right-wing clones of Thatcher and the treaty they have produced is in the Thatcherite anti-worker mode”.

 “The Lisbon Treaty is undemocratic in two ways. In the first instance it copper fastens the unelected, undemocratic institutions and procedures in the EU. The Commission – a cabal of political appointees unaccountable to the European citizenry, will have their status written in stone after Lisbon Treaty. All the window dressing of parliamentary overview or citizens’ petitions will count as naught against the monolith of the commission”.

“The Lisbon Treaty, however, is undemocratic at a more fundamental level. It is undemocratic because it is inaccessible. We will be voting on this document, which has taken an army of politicians and bureaucrats over 6 years to produce, and yet not a fraction of 1% of the population will have seen a copy of the document. Can you walk into your local library, post office, newsagent or bookshop and get a copy of this document? No. Can you walk into any of those outlets and order a copy? No. If you make a special effort and go to the local town hall or city hall can you get a copy of this document? No. So is it a complete secret? Not quite. The last day I was there were three copies available in the offices of the European Commission in Dublin city centre – one to be shared by every million voters”.

3rd March 2008

The full text of Padraig Mannion's address to the meeting will be available online tomorrow (Tuesday).